Wrong Again, Issa – the Bush and Reagan Administrations Were ‘Most Corrupt,’ And TARP Was Bush’s Bill, Not Obama’s

History will likely record that one of House Speaker John Boehner’s worst mistakes was his decision to allow California Rep. Darrell Issa to head the government oversight committee. It was Chairman Issa, after all, who called an all-male panel to discuss contraceptives earlier this year. The optics of this stupid move instantly became an undeniable symbol that Republicans were engaging in a war on women.

Issa, a one-time accused car thief and arsonist, is best-known in California as the guy who funded the initial effort to recall Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, in 2003, so that Issa himself could become governor, only to break down into sobs, with local news cameras rolling, when action star Arnold Schwarzenegger stepped in and bigfooted him out of the way.

More recently, in the weeks after Boehner appointed Issa to the chairmanship, Issa created a stir by predicting that the Obama administration would become the most corrupt government in history. This week, in an interview with Bloomberg news, Issa doubled down on his prediction:

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$6.6 Bil in Cash Was Lost or Stolen by Bush Officials, Contractors or Their Counterparts in Iraq

Part of the haul
Part of the haul
There has been a development in the most under-reported incident of the post-invasion phase in Iraq. To wit: In 2003 and 2004 the Bush administration appropriated $12 billion in cash from the Federal Reserve, shrink-wrapped it into bricks — 363 tons of $100-dollar bills — loaded it into C-130 Hercules transport planes and flew it into the Iraqi hot zone, where most of it disappeared.

This was easily the most money ever air-lifted into a war zone. It may also prove to be the most lucrative heist of all time. Investigators say a little over half of it — $6.6 billion — is missing.

That’s right — $6.6 billion in taxpayer dollars funds seized by the UN from Iraqi oil revenues was either lost or stolen:

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How Will Boehner’s GOP-Tea Party Top Its First Disastrous Week in Power?

Birther Theresa Cao, in March 2010
Birther Theresa Cao, in March 2010
Things started going haywire for Republicans from the minute Speaker John Boehner and his new coalition of establishment and tea party Republicans took control of the House last Wednesday. First, a couple of members voted six times after intentionally skipping the swearing in, triggering constitutional issues. Next, the leadership’s staged reading of the Constitution was disrupted by a representative of their own lunatic fringe and the supposed Constitution expert who facilitated the reading failed to notice when entire sections were skipped over. And then, on Saturday, Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot in Tucson, which sent top tea bagger mouthpieces including Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh right over the edge.

Now, with Speaker Boehner having scheduled a vote on the tea party’s signature issue, repealing the Affordable Care Act, a new poll finds that public support for the repeal has dropped to just 25 percent.

But first, here’s the week that was:

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