“The Speaker will not be commenting on this private matter. . . ."

Those were the words used by Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, on Sunday, May 29, in regard to an incident near Oakville, CA on the evening of the previous day.

While Mr. Pelosi himself is not an elected or appointed figure in the US government, his arrest for DUI is not a private matter but instead one of the most public of offenses in all states of the US. In fact, should Mr. Pelosi be convicted of the charge for which he has been arrested he won't be allowed entry to Canada, Mexico, China, Japan, Malaysia and some Middle Eastern countries.

 

                            businesschronicler.com

 According to news reports, a blood test of the 82-year old Pelosi after the accident that resulted in his arrest showed that his blood alcohol level exceeded the .08 percentage that legally signifies impairment. Arrest for this amount of alcohol in a driver's blood is so important that it has been required in state laws by the federal government in order to secure federal funding for highway construction and maintenance. Special complex equipment has been developed to determine blood alcohol content by examining both the breath and blood of arrested drivers. The results of these tests are used to secure convictions for the charges.

While Mrs. Pelosi or her spokesman (Why would the Speaker of the US House of Representatives need a spokesman?) can decline to comment on any particular situation, using the excuse that it's a "private matter" is preposterous in this situation. A simple "no comment" would be instead be in order.