The farce that is Darrell Issa - By Joan Walsh

[DonViejo]

He's a buffoon who even some in his own party attack. But make no mistake: He is a symbol of today's GOP

BY JOAN WALSH

The only thing that makes Rep. Darrell Issa remotely qualified to chair the House Oversight Committee is his personal familiarity with the investigative process – on the receiving end. The man Republican House Speaker John Boehner put in charge of investigating government wrongdoing was himself indicted for stealing a car, accused of stealing at least one other car, arrested for carrying a concealed weapon, and twice suspected of insurance fraud – and once extensively investigated by authorities for arson, because his former business associates accused him, on the record, of burning down a building to collect the insurance payout.

Democrats love to hate the silly, camera-chasing Issa, who came to power in 2011 promising to put the White House under generalized investigation. But now even some Republicans are happy to criticize Issa too. It’s easy for them to denounce his calling Jay Carney a “paid liar,” as well as his evidence-free claim that the IRS mess was directed from Washington D.C., while they continue to participate in smearing the White House with non-scandals themselves, nonetheless.

Issa’s extremist idiocy lets “reasonable” Republicans denounce him and/or his rhetoric, while they continue their own ethically, intellectually and politically blinkered crusades against President Obama. Sure, Sen. John McCain says it was wrong to call Carney a “paid liar” – but also on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” he compared the IRS mess to Ronald Reagan’s deadly Iran-Contra scandal. Um, no.

Scandal-drunk Sen. Lindsey Graham says Issa went too far when he said the IRS agents who keyword-targeted Tea Party groups “were directly being ordered from Washington.” But he continued to hype the IRS story. “At the end of the day, the IRS scandal really is scary,” he told Fox’s Brian Kilmeade. “How would you like your own government to turn on you?” Is that really what happened, Lindsey Graham? And if so, it happened most brutally to a Democratic group, Emerge America, which had its tax-exempt status revoked.

full article
http://www.salon.com/2013/06/04/the_farce_that_is_darrell_issa/

[xxqqqzme]

1. Shared w/

friends w/o representation in issa's district.

[lob1]

2. Issa's ass needs to testify at the hearings, 'cause that's where he's

pulling out all this crap.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

3. One might think

with a past like Issa's, he would shut the hell up. By charging into the spotlight, his own credibility always comes back to bite him. The ONLY convicted felon in Congress. Wow.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

4. CA's a huge state. We're represented by Rohrabacher, my mother by Issa.

How we wound up with these two dangerous clowns as our reps is truly perplexing.

[mountain grammy]

5. San Diego must be the Colorado Springs of California..

How can this man get elected? But then I look at the idiot elected from Colorado Springs who is every bit as bad, but too stupid to appear on any camera because he can't put two words together. I know Lamborn and Issa must be best buddies.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

7. This is the same area that sent Duke Cunningham to Washington. Then to prison.

"Cunningham resigned from the House on November 28, 2005, after pleading guilty to accepting at least $2.4 million in bribes and under-reporting his income for 2004. He pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion. On March 3, 2006, he received a sentence of eight years and four months in prison and was ordered to pay $1.8 million in restitution."

Amazingly enough, he's free as of TODAY!

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/06/04/188667106/former-rep-duke-cunningham-freed-after-bribery-sentence

[mountain grammy]

8. Yep, I remember the case and being surprised that a Republican could actually be sent to prison.

[cascadiance]

10. And Issa helped fire prosecutor Carol Lam that put away Duke Cunningham...

... because "she didn't do enough to prosecute illegal immigration."... Of course it had nothing to do with her prosecuting Cunningham, Brent Wilkes, and many other Republican cronies...

http://issa.house.gov/press-releases/2007/03/rep-issa-former-us-attorney-carol-lam-to-testify-at-subcommittee-hearing-on-removal-of-seven-us-attorneys/

So, Issa, Carol didn't do enough to prosecute illegal immigration? Try looking here...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6626823

I guess you don't like the idea that she went after illegal EMPLOYERS, the root cause of illegal immigration, but who are your CROOK BUDDIES! The last paragraph of this story is choice commentary on Rethugs and where they don't prioritize in immigration prosecutions and how they want the current system to work...

"Golden State Fence's attorney, Richard Hirsch, admits his client broke the law. But he says the case proves that construction companies need a guest-worker program."

And apparently, your company's making of radar detectors for car didn't help you in this case. I guess you thought you were in a different class of people that doesn't have to use this product you sold to speeders.

http://articles.latimes.com/2002/apr/27/local/me-issa27

(hmmm... I wonder if the Koch brothers would allow a story like this to be published if they bought the Times)...

[SleeplessinSoCal]

13. It's no wonder they put him in his position as chair. The GOP is like the Mob.

It's bad enough without bringing the Koch Bros into the scenario.

[mountain grammy]

16. Ya think? Interesting stuff, thanks.

[sdfernando]

11. Don't blame the CITY of San Diego

He represents an area of the North County of San Diego. He doesn't represent one citizen living the the actual city of San Diego. The city us much more liberal. Hell, we elected Bob Filner as Mayor!

[mountain grammy]

15. Which is different from Colorado Springs where the whole city is batshit crazy

after all, that's where Scott Walker grew up.. nuff said.

[Botany]

6. This IRS "scandal is a nothing burger w/a side of fries because the total # of ....

... tea party groups that did not get tax exempt status is zero. Benghazi,
ACORN, people voting twice, WMDs in Iraq, or what have you are just examples
of putting bull shit on toast and having our "liberal media" tell us to eat up it
is just "country style apple butter," and NPR is busy helping to push these fake
scandals like Obama has an IRS problem on his hands.

Issa has no shame and the GOP knows he is lying and making stuff up but we
have already seen this act before it was called, Whitewater.

[BobbyBoring]

9. This whole issue shows how well rethugs are at framing issues and how poorly Dems respond

This should have been a non issue from day one. Had someone from the IRS simply stated they were just doing their jobs, it would be over. The bottom line is, you can not have 5011 C4 status if you intend to engage in political activity PERIOD! The scandal should be about all of the 501 C4s that are engaged in political ILLEGALLY!

People that are dumb enough to try to use Tea Party, Freedom, Liberty, etc instantly identify themselves to the IRS as political activists seeking tax free status and don't intend to engage in any of that stinkin "Public Welfare" crap.

That should be the scandal!

[blkmusclmachine]

12. .

.

[Scurrilous]

14. K & R