This time, no one gets to say Gov. Tom Wolf is a dictator.

Pointing to the governor as an iron-fisted authoritarian has been common over the six months since schools shuttered and coronavirus lockdowns were instituted. We have seen the Wolf administration’s response as being more of a pinball game that rocketed between the bumpers of scientific assessment, public opinion, rollback, rethink and special exceptions, and have called him out accordingly.

But on Wednesday, the state House of Representatives got its opportunity to put the governor in his place.

And it didn’t.

House Bill 2787 was introduced in August. It would have allowed school districts to set their own limits for sporting events during the pandemic rather than the Wolf-set 250 people for outdoor gatherings and 25 for indoor events.

Those limits have created a tough situation for districts that need to protect their staff and students on one side and deal with the conflicting feelings and beliefs of the parents and taxpayers on the other. Doing the right thing isn’t always the right thing for everyone. For some, it’s hurting a kid’s future. For others, it’s making a political statement.

It’s a lose-lose situation for school board members, who don’t get paid like state leaders but still face all the problems associated with elected office.

So House Bill 2787 was an opportunity for a legislature that has challenged Wolf repeatedly over his pandemic moves to wrest some of that control back and take a stand. The bill passed the House on Sept. 2. It passed the Senate on Sept. 9. It was signed, sealed and presented to the governor Sept. 11 and sat on his desk 10 days before he vetoed it.

And House leaders didn’t scrape up enough votes to get the two-thirds majority to override the veto.

Why? Maybe the legislators didn’t think it mattered because of the recent federal ruling that called Wolf’s crowd size limits unconstitutional. But that doesn’t explain why 25 lawmakers changed their vote from three weeks ago. If it mattered then, why not now?

That is especially true because the lawsuit is not dead. If Wolf wins on appeal, the lawmakers will have lost the chance to have what they have said they wanted all along — the ability to participate in shaping policy rather than letting the governor do it without their input.

House Bill 2787 was how the process is supposed to work, with the governor and the Legislature both playing a part. What the legislators lost was the right to their righteous indignation.

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