Capitol Christmas Goes Green, Then Brown

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is making the Capitol Christmas tree a little more environmentally friendly this year, decorating it with energy-efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs) instead of the conventional lights now strewn in gaudy colors about The Crypt’s apartment.

The effort comes as part of the California Democrat’s ongoing Greening the Capitol initiative.

But The Crypt questions whether the best judgment was at work when Pelosi decided to tout environmental causes atop what is, essentially, a dead tree.

Honestly, of all the places to talk about newfangled lights, the carcass of a 55-foot Balsam fir that grew peacefully in Vermont’s Green Mountain National Forest for the past 60 years before being set upon the Capitol lawn to wither and die?

Asked about the wisdom of the move, a Pelosi spokesman responded with, “Bah, humbug!”

No word yet on whether Pelosi’s team researched artificial trees in the 50-foot-and-above category.

Pelosi will join the Vermont delegation in officially lighting the tree Thursday at 5 p.m.