We were on such a roll for awhile there fellas. Then Marshall goes on vacation, I leave D.C. for work, and Jim… well, I guess Jim’s still in his post-Patriots/Jets funk.

But never fear, for I return bringing good news:

Nancy Pelosi is a hypocrite.

But then, we knew that, didn’t we? Still, it’s nice to see stories like this are getting some coverage, even if it’s the WSJ and not, say, Keith Olbermann calling Pelosi the “Worst Person in the World”.

Jim: I don’t know if the problem is that Pelosi is a hypocrite, so much as the Democrats don’t know whether they believe their own arguments or not. Apparently, America’s workers deserve a raise, except in American Samoa. Maybe the guys down there have been slacking off.

I have no dog in the minimum wage fight. I think raising the minimum wage will have a small, small beneficial impact on the take-home pay of minimum wage workers, and make it somewhat more difficult for companies to hire workers at minimum wage, but since we’re dealing with such a tiny slice of American workers as a whole, it’s almost irrelevant as economic policy. Raising the minimum wage has become synonymous with “I care about poor people” in the voters’ minds, and that is why Congress is eager to pass a hike.

The Wall Street Journal sees it as Pelosi doing the bidding of powerful companies in her district. I doubt many Democratic rank-and-file will be bothered by this at all. Truly confronting the ramifications of this deliberate exemption would disrupt their well-established belief that Pelosi & Co. are the good guys, and that Republicans are the bad guys. Republicans and free marketeers like the WSJ can point, shout, and jump up and down, but one of two things will occur from this - either the exemption will be rescinded, or the media, and those who were most vocal about raising the minimum wage will rapidly lose interest.  (Maybe Boehner and Republicans ought to introduce a bill to raise the minimum wage in American Samoa, try to get it to the floor with a discharge petition, and see if Democrats vote to pass it.)