Tag: Rep. Darrell Issa

Rep. Issa’s Democratic Opponent Calls Him Out at Town Hall

Jon Ponder

There are 14 Republicans in California’s 53 seat congressional delegation. Seven of the 14 are in districts won by Hillary Clinton in 2016. Rep. Darrell Issa, the wealthiest member of Congress — and perhaps the most unpopular politician statewide — is one of the seven.

Environmental lawyer Mike Levin nearly beat Issa last year. Now Levin is gunning for Issa again.

On Fox, Issa Walks Back His Apology for Cutting off Ranking Member’s Microphone

Jon Ponder

Congress-watchers cannot recall another incident in which a committee chairman silenced a ranking member by turning off the member’s microphone — but it happened Wednesday when GOP Rep. Darrell Issa of California, chair of the House Oversight Committee, cut off the microphone as Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Democrat from Maryland, was speaking.

But when the time came for apologies, in today’s topsy-turvy tea party world, it was Issa who claimed to have been insulted.

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Schultz Mocks Issa As Captain of Kangaroo Court

Jon Ponder

Over at The New Yorker, John Cassidy sees a glimmer of hope for Pres. Obama in the GOP’s irresistible impulse to overreach and the perpetually inept leadership of House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa of California:

The situation is dire alright—arguably the worst moment of Obama’s five-year tenure. But the Hawaiian Houdini still has one thing going for him, and that’s the uncanny tendency of some of his Republican enemies to turn opportunities into calamities. And none is more adept at this party trick than Darrell Edward Issa, the San Diego loudmouth whose House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a public hearing today, which backfired almost immediately.

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Issa Conjures Shades of McCarthyism

Buck Banks

In a reminder of how the GOP overreached during the Clinton-era sex scandal, [Rep. Darrell Issa, (R-CA)] doesn’t seem capable of letting damning facts speak for themselves. … Note what Issa is doing. He does it all the time–start an unsubstantiated allegation with an absolute declaration (‘when in fact’) and follow it with weasel words (‘the indication is’). This smear-and-caveat technique allows him to ruin reputations without being called a liar. Issa is a demagogue with plausible deniability.

— Ron Fournier, writing in National Journal.

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

Jon Ponder

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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