House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seemed to be one of the few San Franciscans unaware that hair salons were off-limits because of the pandemic restrictions. At least that was her excuse for having her hair done at a neighborhood salon last week.

Surveillance video from the shop showed her walking inside with hair wet and mask down.

Once that video fell into the hands of Fox News, her critics jumped on the chance to make it their cause celebre of the day, from cable pundits to President Trump. “Crazy Nancy Pelosi is being decimated for having a beauty parlor opened, when all others are closed, and for not wearing a Mask — despite constantly lecturing everyone else,” Trump tweeted Wednesday.

Compounding the unforced error, Pelosi refused to apologize, alleging she was set up.

“I think that this salon owes me an apology, for setting me up,” Pelosi said at a media availability about San Francisco-area schools reopening.

The pandemic restrictions are hardly a secret — especially in San Francisco, which has been taking the most conservative approach in the state of California to reopening. The city’s latest health order allowed haircuts, manicures and waxing sessions only outdoors and only as of Sept. 1. Owners and stylists are experiencing a hard financial hit, and residents with unruly manes are deeply frustrated.

Pelosi made plain last week that she would prefer to be talking about how to “get this country moving again” and would not “let this subject take away from the fact that we have 185,000-plus people who have died from the virus.”

Of course, she would prefer to change the subject.

An apology and an acknowledgment that few if any of her constituents not named Nancy Pelosi would have been invited into the salon in violation of city rules — setup or not — might have helped calm the kerfuffle. Instead, her hypocrisy kept it alive for another news cycle.

— Tribune News Service