Politicians love to talk.

It’s a big part of the job. They speak in parliaments. They speak in committees. They talk to voters. They talk to reporters. If you’re lucky, you’ll be asked to speak on TV, radio or other popular platforms.

Politicians crave attention. It’s an affirmation. It means you are important. You are someone who has important things to say. You will be noticed. People listen.

Politicians know that the bigger their job, the more careful they have to be when speaking to an audience – no matter how small or large. This is especially true if you are a cabinet minister or “leader.” Too much unscripted talking can be dangerous.

Therefore, what politicians say while they speak is, in most cases, forgettable or, worse, meaningless. You have to stick to your topics of conversation. They love clichés.

However, there are moments when politicians become too comfortable. They become complacent. They make a mistake and say something open and insightful about who they are and what they actually think and believe.

Luckily, last week two politicians opted for refreshing bursts of honesty over the usual rhetorical mush. One is Canadian. The other is American. You probably don’t know the first politician. The second is quite well known.

Both spoke in a roundabout way about what was happening in Gaza.

The name of the first female politician is Selina Robinson. She is currently Minister of Post-Secondary Education in the “socialist” provincial government of British Columbia, Canada.

January 30th was Robinson talk on Zoom as part of a group of Jewish politicians organized by a pro-Israel advocacy group. She was among “friends” and chatting with “friends.”

In one remarkable stroke, Robinson not only rewrote history but also used a familiar racist motif. Before Israel’s artificial birth, she said, Palestine was “a shitty piece of land with nothing on it.”

“There were several hundred thousand people, but other than that it didn’t produce an economy… it couldn’t grow anything. There was nothing on it and it was the displaced people who came and the people who had lived there for generations and together they worked hard,” the minister said.

Translation: 700,000 idle Muslim and Christian Palestinians for generations had missed the chance to make the desert bloom. Fortunately, it flourished after the arrival of “displaced,” hard-working Israelis who were “offered” the “shitty piece of land.”

Since saying what she said, Robinson has stopped talking — at least in public. Instead, the minister had to watch and listen as many others talked about how and why she must resign.

Even the pro-Israel group that invited Robinson to speak more or less abandoned her, allegedly He told a CBC reporter: “Minister Robinson’s comments … do not reflect the views of our organization.”

You know you’ve been talking too much when your once close “friends” throw you off track.

So Robinson did what politicians must do when they give a clear voice to what they think and believe: she made an obsequious apology for X.

Robinson wrote that her “flippant” and “disrespectful” comments “caused pain.”

“I regret what I said and apologize unreservedly.”

Few are convinced by Robinson’s belated, performative act of contrition, including two of her “socialist” colleagues in Ottawa. An MP is calling for a “reassessment” of her place in Cabinet. Another lawmaker denounced Robinson for his “appalling disregard for the terrible violence inflicted on Palestinians.”

Robinson’s boss, the Prime Minister of British Columbia, also speaks. He said that the minister’s comments were “wrong”. Instead of firing her, the Prime Minister talks nice to Robinson. He practically told her to keep talking.

“She still has some work to do to reach out to the community and address the harm her comments have caused,” he said.

In other words, the Prime Minister wants Robinson to give her and the government a way out of the difficult situation.

Right. That should do it.

The second talkative politician is the former speaker of the US House of Representatives and grande dame of the congressional Democrats, Nancy Pelosi. On January 29, she delivered her annoying speeches in the always pleasant studios of CNN’s Washington bureau.

The influential “Speaker Emerita” was asked to comment on the annoying, mostly young protesters who interrupt President Joe Biden’s campaign stops with chants of “Genocide Joe” and to ask whether she was “worried that they would just stay home with the presidential election fast approaching.” could”.

A condescending Pelosi immediately played the victim card, saying, “I’ve experienced, let’s say, their exuberance on this…they stand in front of my house all the time.”

Poor, spoiled Pelosi.

The “Speaker Emerita” sharpened her, shall we say, contempt with a lecture, claiming that, unlike the “exuberant” mob, she and other serious types on Capitol Hill “need to think about” how to try to end the suffering to stop”. Gaza.”

Poor, misunderstood Pelosi.

Apparently she “believes” that a “ceasefire” would “not stop the suffering in Gaza,” as Russian President Vladimir Putin “would like to see that.”

Pelosi’s logic, laden with McCarthyite smears, is vile and bizarre. What can “stop the suffering in Gaza” other than a ceasefire – with or without Putin’s blessing?

I’m stupid and cocky, but I can’t “think of” anything other than a “ceasefire” that will “stop the suffering in Gaza.”

Pelosi should have stopped talking. Luckily she didn’t.

She then proved that behind every speaker emeritus wearing an American flag pin is an Alex Jones-like conspiracy theorist convinced that the homeland is being overrun by fifth columnists masquerading as citizens, exercising their constitutional rights to get one to challenge the incumbent president.

“I think some of these protesters are spontaneous, organic and sincere,” Pelosi said. “Some, I think, have a connection to Russia.”

Again, Pelosi should have stopped talking.

Luckily she didn’t.

She wasn’t done calling millions of her fellow, albeit “cocky,” Americans of Arab, Muslim and Palestinian descent as Putin’s useful tools, and confirmed that she is as ready and eager as her nemesis Donald Trump perceived to be to hire the FBI Enemies.

“Some financing should be investigated, and I would like to ask the FBI to investigate it,” Pelosi said.

Paging J Edgar Hoover. Paging J Edgar Hoover.

I’m glad Pelosi kept talking.

I’m glad because she exposed the Democratic Party for the “progressive” and “inclusive” fraud that it is.

The Democratic Party has never been and will never be the “home” of Arab, Muslim and Palestinian Americans. They are always treated with suspicion and contempt by a party establishment that confuses dissent with disloyalty and views Palestinians as disposable fodder.

When politicians talk, it’s sometimes about clarity.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of Al Jazeera.