Even without crowds in the stands, it's still exciting to watch the Summer Olympics. Despite disappointments like in women's gymnastics, at least we've seen intense competition. Unlike Washington, D.C.

Take the House of Representatives. In the Summer Games between House Republicans and Democrats, there's zero competition. And it all boils down to this: Speaker Nancy Pelosi is the smartest leader in the history of the House. And Kevin McCarthy is the dumbest. Absolutely. Amazingly. Frighteningly. Dumb as a fence post. It's hard to imagine how McCarthy could have mucked up the Republicans' response to January 6 worse than he has. Is he really the best the Republican Party has to offer?

From the moment polls closed on November 3, 2020, McCarthy decided that the best bet for Republicans would be to put loyalty to Trump over loyalty to democracy. On Thursday, November 5, like the Trump puppy dog he is, McCarthy went on Fox News to declare: "President Trump won this election, so everyone who's listening, do not be quiet."

He then led 126 House Republicans in supporting the Texas attorney general's zany request that the Supreme Court invalidate the electoral votes of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Wisconsin. And on January 6, even after Trump's armed mob had forced McCarthy, along with every other member of Congress, to run for his life, he nevertheless voted to decertify Arizona's electoral votes and overturn the election.

Immediately after the insurrection, a shaken McCarthy lashed out. "The President bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress by mob rioters," he said at the time, in a rare moment of sanity. But within days, doubtlessly after a tongue-lashing by Trump, McCarthy was back to his subservient self. "I don't believe Trump provoked, if you listened to what he said at the rally," McCarthy told reporters on January 21.

Again, albeit so briefly, McCarthy rallied, supporting a bipartisan, September 11-like commission to investigate the January 6 attack on the Capitol. He appointed New York Republican John Katko to hammer out a deal with Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson, chair of the Homeland Security Committee. But even after Katko got everything the Republican leader demanded, McCarthy − no doubt after checking in again with Trump − made his most stupid mistake of all. He pulled the rug out from under Katko and refused to participate in a bipartisan investigation, thereby giving up any power he once held and handing the entire matter over to Speaker Pelosi. 

At which point, Pelosi, again showing her leadership mastery, did what the times demanded. She named a select committee to investigate January 6, which she would control, but in which Republicans, now subject to her veto, were invited to participate. Again, she set a trap for the hapless McCarthy, who walked right into it by appointing Trump sycophants Jim Jordan and Jim Banks − whom Pelosi immediately vetoed. In their place, she nominated conservative truth-seekers Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill.

All of which led to the dramatic hearing where four police officers related their horrific experience of being brutally assaulted, beaten, tased and gassed in the Capitol on January 6 by armed Trump supporters wearing military gear and Trump campaign clothing, all insisting that they were invading the Capitol because Trump told them to. 

Called "traitors" by the mob, the officers were lucky to survive. Yet every one of them said that, even worse than the physical abuse they suffered was the fact that so many of the people they put their lives at risk to defend are downplaying or outright denying what happened. "I feel like I went to hell and back to protect them and the people in this room," said Officer Michael Fanone, "but too many are now telling me that hell doesn't exist or that hell isn't that bad."

At the end of the day, Pelosi showed that Democrats were clearly embarked on a serious, historic, bipartisan effort to get to the bottom of what happened on January 6. Meanwhile, thanks to Kevin McCarthy, House Republicans were exposed as anti-police, anti-law and order, anti-learning the truth, and anti-democracy. With the exception of Cheney and Kinzinger, Republicans, who used to be the party of law and order, lined up against police officers and on the side of terrorists. 

What can you say about a so-called leader who put Republicans in such a suicidal political position? Ask Speaker Pelosi. When asked her reaction to Kevin McCarthy's bizarre behavior, she said it best: "He's such a moron."

Clarence Page's columns are distributed by the Tribune Content Agency.