Day: July 23, 2013

Calbuzz: ‘Why Isn’t Darrell Issa in Jail?’

Jon Ponder

Calbuzz, a go-to site for the inside dope on California politics, has been covering the corrupt and checkered political career of Rep. Darrell Issa since it began 15 years ago. Now Calbuzz asks a simple question: “Why Isn’t Darrell Issa in Jail?”

[We] keep wondering why our colleagues in the Washington press corps have not figured out the truth about this guy: he’s a thug…

Issa is a wealthy bully and proven liar with a checkered personal history featuring criminal and civil legal proceedings that involve car thefts, concealed weapons charges and allegations of insurance arson, among his other sterling qualifications for high office. A reasonable man might imagine a less wealthy person perched in Stony Lonesome rather than on the dais of a prestigious and powerful congressional committee.

None of Issa’s past, um, indiscretions are a secret, at least since May 1998, when Lance Williams, then of the San Francisco Examiner, began reporting on the guy. Given that his shady past was admirably re-collated by Ryan Lizza in a 2011 New Yorker profile, Issa’s lies and prominent roles in a long train of extra-legal abuses should be well known to esteemed Washington press hounds who spend their days smooching his expensively draped derriere.

The Calbuzzers provide a “Cliff’s Notes” sampler of Issa’s misdeeds. Here are four items from the list, go read the rest.

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Most GOPers Think Party Leaders are Heading in the Wrong Direction

Buck Banks

52%

Of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents think the GOP leadership is taking the party in the wrong direction while just 37% think it’s headed in the right direction, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds. “That disaffection is apparent in another measure: Just 21% of Americans in this survey identify themselves as Republicans, matching the fewest since November 2009. GOP allegiance has dropped from an annual average of 31% in 2003 to annual averages of 23 or 24% the past five years straight.”

Reid Says House Has Done Nothing

Buck Banks

House Republicans are failing even by their own metric. They’ve replaced virtually nothing. So by the speaker’s own admission, they’re not getting anything passed and by his own analysis, they’re getting nothing repealed. So they’re doing nothing.

— Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), responding to Speaker John Boehner’s weekend comment that the GOP-dominated House of Representatives should not be judged on how many laws it passes but on how many laws they repeal, Politico reports.

Most Wyomingites Don’t Think Liz Cheney Is an Wyomingite

Buck Banks

50%

Of voters in Wyoming don’t consider Liz Cheney to be a “Wyomingite,” according to a new Public Policy Polling survey, which finds just 31% do. By a 50% to 28% margin they think it would be more appropriate for Cheney to run for the Senate from Virginia than Wyoming. In her GOP primary race with Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), the incumbent crushes Cheney by a 54% to 26% margin.

Big Government Republicans Enacted 42 Anti-Choice Measures in 25 States Last Year

Jon Ponder
Source: NARAL

Via NARAL Pro-Choice America:

Total Anti-Choice Measures Enacted in 2012:

  • 25 states enacted 42 anti-choice measures in 2012.
  • Arizona enacted the most anti-choice legislation in 2012, with four measures. Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Wisconsin each enacted three anti-choice measures.
  • Since 1995, states have enacted 755 anti-choice measures.

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Surveillance Programs Cut President’s Approval Rating 9 Percentage Points among Californians

Jon Ponder

A new Field Poll, which is the gold standard in California polling, has found an unprecedented 9 percentage point drop in Pres. Obama’s approval ratings among Californians. Poll director Mark DiCamillo attributes the drop — from 61 percent approval in February to revelations that the government is spying on Americans by tracking phone and Internet use:

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