"Good riddance, Darrell Issa: A wasteful blowhard’s humiliating history"

[applegrove]

Good riddance, Darrell Issa: A wasteful blowhard’s humiliating history

by Ari Rabin-Havt at Salon

http://www.salon.com/2014/12/11/good_riddance_darrell_issa_a_wasteful_blowhards_humiliating_history/

"SNIP..................


In four years at the helm of the House of Representative’s primary investigative body, Darrell Issa launched major investigations into the 2012 attack in Benghazi, the IRS’s alleged targeting of conservative organizations, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms’ failed “Fast and Furious” operation, the bankruptcy of solar panel manufacturer Solyndra, and the launch of Healthcare.gov. In pursuit of these scandals he was granted a budget of $25,678,100.

This figure does not account for the $14 million spent by the IRS answering voluminous and often duplicative subpoenas, the “millions” spent by the Department of Defense responding to inquiries about the attack in Benghazi, the budget of the Oversight Committee’s minority staff, nor the massive expenditure of resources by the dozens of other federal agencies that have come under the scrutiny of the Oversight Committee. By its conclusion Darrell Issa’s chairmanship could cost the U.S. Treasury well into the nine figures. From that astounding allocation of resources, Issa has unveiled no major corruption or gotten to the bottom of no significant scandal.

By mistaking bureaucratic incompetence for scandal, ineptitude for criminality, and general stupidity on the part of low- and mid-level government employees for political conspiracy, Issa all but guarantees that only the most fervent partisans will trust any information that emerges from his committee. In that way he is perhaps the best Oversight chairman a Democratic administration could hope for — one whose investigations can simply be disregarded as partisan witch hunts and whose influence waned with each misstep.

In an October 2011 profile, Issa described himself to Susan Davis of National Journal as “a salesman,” claiming, “what I’m selling is the awareness of a product.” Yet his principal product has been well-packaged, media-friendly and almost always phony scandals.




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[winterwar]

1. car theif

Why don't they investigate this guy's shady past. Let's hold 79 hearings on Issa's indiscretions. He looks like a total prick. And he looks proud of being a prick. Look at his shit eating grin.

[mindwalker_i]

2. He was looking for Monica Lewinski in all the wrong places

That was republicans' last great success.

[oldandhappy]

3. He cost the country a lot of money.

The challenger in the race for that district in Nov. got 40% of the vote. A nice start. Hope same man challenges again. Issa has to notice 40%.