Enough already, Nancy

AS AN illustration of what ails congressional Democrats, Nancy Pelosi’s recent attempt to defend an 88-year-old party grandee who was alleged to have shown up to work in his pyjamas, fondled generations of female employees and to have asked at least one of them to “touch it”, is hard to beat. The Democrats’ long-serving House leader, who is merely 77, had been asked on NBC about the allegations against Representative John Conyers of Michigan, the House’s longest-serving member. She responded by calling him an “icon”. Asked whether she believed his accusers, Mrs Pelosi blustered: “I don’t know who they are. Do you? They have not really come forward.” At least five former staffers of Mr Conyers, who was until this week the ranking Democrat on the House judiciary committee and a force in the Congressional Black Caucus, had at that time accused him of inappropriate behaviour. One had received a pay-off from his office funds.