Realistically there are only two candidates for this position even though there were 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump on January 13. Eight of those 10 have kept their heads down for the most part since then, hoping that the heat over their impeachment votes cools enough to give them a fighting chance of surviving a primary next summer. They wouldn’t accept a slot on the new January 6 select committee even if it were offered, not wanting to be seen as Pelosi allies ahead of 2022.

The remaining two, on the other hand, now live by the motto “D-G-A-F” with respect to their futures in Congress. They’re happy to state their honest views on Trump, the election, and the insurrection when those subjects come up no matter how much it may antagonizes MAGA fans. If that means they’re successfully primaried, at least they’ll depart government with their consciences clear.

If Pelosi’s seriously considering naming a Republican, it can only be Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger. If, that is, she’s limiting herself to current members of Congress.

.@SpeakerPelosi Bill to establish #Jan6 #SelectCommittee:

"The Speaker shall appoint 13 Members to the Select Committee, 5 of whom shall be appointed after consultation with the minority leader."

Maybe Members who vote against this Bill should be considered disqualified. pic.twitter.com/uWWUAFymQO

— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) June 28, 2021

NEWS: per Pelosi aide: “The Speaker is seriously considering including a Republican among her 8 appointments to the Select Committee.”

— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) June 28, 2021

Politico raised the possibility a few days ago that she might appoint former Republican Denver Riggleman, who was himself successfully primaried in 2020 and has become a sharp critic of the conspiratorial trend in righty activism since then. But an ex-congressman like Riggleman wouldn’t gave Pelosi as much bang for her political buck as appointing a sitting Republican like Kinzinger or especially Cheney would. The point in naming an R to the committee would be to let Dems say when they subpoena Kevin McCarthy or Mike Pence or whoever that the subpoena was issued via a bipartisan vote. Since Riggleman’s now out of politics, his partisan affiliation isn’t as strong as Cheney’s and Kinzinger’s are.

He’s lower-profile than both of them too. Not only is Cheney the daughter of a former Republican VP, she was willing to sacrifice her spot in the House leadership and a shot at being Speaker down the road for the cause of challenging Trump on his election claims. She’s remade her entire political brand from superhawk to the establishment GOP’s most outspoken Trump antagonist. Pelosi would be nutty not to leverage that by giving her a seat, especially since Dems have an 8-5 advantage on the committee. She can hand a Democratic seat to Cheney and still retain a 7-6 Democratic majority.

Honestly, given how independent Cheney and Kinzinger are on the subject of the insurrection and how ardent they’ve been in speaking out against it, even putting both of them on the committee would leave Dems with a de facto majority despite Republicans technically holding seven of the 13 seats. But I doubt we’ll see that, mainly because Pelosi wants to be able to rely on mindless partisan allegiance to get Democrats out of a political jam in case the committee ends up creating one for them. Watch the clip below of Kinzinger being asked yesterday whether he’d agree to serve on the select committee if invited to do so and you’ll find him saying he’d consider it — if the committee is empowered to pursue “all leads.” I take it that’s a reference to investigating whether Pelosi and the House Dem leadership were derelict in their duty to provide adequate security for the Capitol on January 6. With a Republican majority of 7-6 featuring Cheney and Kinzinger, the committee could chase that lead. With a Democratic majority of 7-6 featuring Cheney *or* Kinzinger, Dems would have the numbers to block it.

So no, they won’t both end up on the committee. One or the other might, though.

This CNN segment with Kinzinger, by the way, begins with him wondering why Republicans in Ohio would have wanted to attend a rally for a “loser president” over the weekend. In case there was any doubt that he’d be just as gung ho as Democrats on the select committee to investigate Trump’s role in January 6, that should resolve it. Exit question: Does Pelosi have veto power over McCarthy’s five nominations to the committee? The resolution posted above says she’ll make the appointments after “consultation” with him. I wonder if that means she’s retaining the right to say no if he tries to fill the GOP’s seats with trolls like Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene. Pelosi doesn’t want to let the committee become a platform for MAGA types to grandstand about the election being rigged.