Day: June 20, 2010

Issa to Double Staff, Barrage White House with Subpoenas If He Becomes Oversight Chair

Jon Ponder

Issa
Issa
Outside his Camp Pendleton-adjacent district north of San Diego, which he has served since 2001, GOP Rep. Darrell Issa is considered a laughingstock in California — mostly because he broke down in sobs in front of local television cameras after Arnold Schwarzenegger bigfooted him out of the governor’s race during the 2003 recall election. (But really, who didn’t see that coming?) Which is why Californians are amazed that this buffoon is on track to becoming chairman of the House Oversight Committee, the committee Dan Burton of Indiana chaired during the Clinton era, if Republicans win control of the House in November.

Cynical GOP-watchers, including yours truly, are predicting that if the GOP wins Congress in November Speaker Boehner will greenlight multiple, simultaneous investigations into the White House with the ultimate goal of impeaching Pres. Obama at any cost. There’s no surer sign of Boehner’s intent than the choice of a nutbag like Issa to chair the Oversight Committee. Anyone familiar with Issa’s record knows that he will devote whatever time and government resources it takes to find a pretext — any bogus reason — to impeach the president.

If you think this is too Chicken Little-ish or an alarmist attempt to scare the bejesus out of fans of the president who are complacent about the midterms, a new report in right-leaning Politico.com might give you pause: Issa has been boasting that he has requested a doubling of the committee’s staff in order to handle the volume of subpoenas he’ll be issuing to the White House, if he becomes chairman:

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Barton’s ‘Shakedown’ in BP Apology Echoed Stance of Committee of 117 Out of 178 House GOP Reps

Jon Ponder

Republican Study Committee photos of members including Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., second from left in first photo and with arms folded at tea bag rally in second photo
Republican Study Committee photos of members from its website, including Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., in first photo and with arms folded at tea bag rally in second photo
Despite his claims otherwise, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, was not speaking only for himself when he apologized to BP CEO Tony Hayward during a hearing on BP’s Gulf oil disaster on Thursday.

The Obama administration “appears not to respect fundamental American principles.”
-RSC press release

On Wednesday, the day before the hearing, the Republican Study Committee, which claims as members 117 of the 178 of the most partisan Republicans in the House — including Barton Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, and Virginia’s Rep. Eric Cantor, who will likely become majority leader if Republicans win control of the House in November, as well as Barton — issued a press release in which they smeared the Obama administration by inferring that the Obama White House is un-American and referring to the BP Gulf victims’ fund as a “Chicago-style shakedown”:

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Fox News: GOP in Congress Has Lowest Approval of D.C. Politicians – Even Among Republicans

Jon Ponder

I missed this Fox News poll from last month:

Democrats in Congress continue to garner better ratings than Republicans. Some 37 percent of voters approve of the job Democrats in Congress are doing, little changed from 36 percent about six months ago. For Congressional Republicans, 31 percent approve, up slightly from 29 percent.

Fully 70 percent of Democrats approve of the job their representatives are doing on Capitol Hill, compared to 52 percent of Republicans who approve of theirs. About twice as many Republicans (40 percent) disapprove of the job their party is doing in Congress as Democrats disapprove of their party (19 percent).

A majority of independents disapproves of Democrats (60 percent) and Republicans in Congress (66 percent).

The same poll found that Pres. Obama has a 53 percent favorable rating overall, including a 91 percent favorability among Democrats.