Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Ca) is increasingly looking more isolated within his party as his calling White House Press Secretary a “paid liar” has resembled an Australian boomerang more than a political drone aimed at the White House. See our post HERE — but there are new developments.
For instance, Lindsay Graham isn’t going along with this kind of rhetorical overkill:
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Monday became the latest Republican to reject Darrell Issa’s comments that White House press secretary Jay Carney is a “paid liar” in relation to the IRS controversy. But Graham went further than his Republican colleagues, saying there’s no evidence that the White House ordered the tax agency to target conservative groups.
During an interview with “Kilmeade and Friends” on Fox News Radio, Graham said Issa, a California Republican, was a key player in investigating the matter as the chairman of the House Oversight Committee. But, he conceded, “you can go too far” with personal allegations.
“Let’s not make it personal. Jay Carney is not the issue here. He’s the spokesman for the White House,” Graham told host Brian Kilmeade, adding that it “never helps” to resort to personal name-calling.
On Sunday, Issa accused the White House of ordering the IRS to target conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status in 2012, even though a 48-page report by the IRS Inspector General and testimony from multiple IRS officials cleared the White House of any involvement. Issa has nonetheless insisted IRS agents were being “ordered from Washington.” He specifically directed his criticism at Carney, who has maintained the administration played no role in the targeting and only learned of the matter once an investigation was complete.
After making strong statements about the Obama administration’s involvement in the IRS scandal, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) has been making headlines. Sen. John McCain was asked about Issa’s “liar” accusation on CBS This Morning — and noted his aversion to using “that word.”
The trifecta of controversies has obviously affected President Obama‘s credibility, the senator noted. He “should be thinking about how to get these issues behind him” so he can focus on the other important issues “he needs to lead on.”
To that point, Norah O’Donnell questioned whether he’d go as far as Issa “who has accused the administration of being liars.”
“I never like to use that word,” McCain replied. “I think that we should let these investigations take their course, let the facts come out.”
That said, the last few hearings did reflect well on the IRS, he added. “They’re not covering themselves with distinction here,” the senator contended. “But I think these hearings are what we should rely on to a significant degree.”
Not a voice of confidence in Issa’s assertion — or his tactics. Indeed, the National Journal’s Ron Fournier compares Issa to the late Sen. Josephy McCarthy. A few excerpts:
In one brief and repugnant interview, the GOP’s chief congressional investigator into Internal Revenue Service abuses cherry-picked evidence, overstated his case, and violated the sacred American principle of presumed innocence.
If that was not enough, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., called White House press secretary Jay Carney a “paid liar,” and couldn’t explain why. “We’re getting to proving it,” he said.
Meet the best friend of a controversy-plagued Democratic White House: a demagogic Republican.
In a reminder of how the GOP overreached during the Clinton-era sex scandal, Issa doesn’t seem capable of letting damning facts speak for themselves.
AND:
ISSA The whole transcript will be put out. We understand–these are in real time. And the administration is still–they’re paid liar, their spokesperson, picture behind [he points to a picture of White House press secretary Jay Carney], he’s still making up things about what happens in calling this local rogue. There’s no indication–the reason the Lois Lerner tried to take the Fifth is not because there is a rogue in Cincinnati; it’s because this is a problem that was coordinated in all likelihood right out of Washington headquarters and we’re getting to proving it. We have 18 more transcribed interviews to do.
See what he’s doing? “We understand” and “in all likelihood” are weasel phrases couching accusations and assumptions that Issa can’t support. But don’t worry; he might prove them after 18 more interviews!
Do you hear history’s echo? Sen. Joe McCarthy paved his way to infamy with 205 names. ” I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party …,” McCarthy said in 1950. (There is some dispute over the actual number of names McCarthy cited.)
Crowley pointed out the obvious–that Issa had “no direct link” between the wrongdoing of IRS agents and political leaders in Washington. Issa replied, “The president’s spokesman is saying whatever is convenient at the time and the story changes.”
That sentence is irony wrapped in raw partisanship and infused with hypocrisy. If Issa is going to call Carney a liar, he might want to step outside his glass house.He might also want to realize that the president is swamped in self-inflicted controversies that raise questions of West Wing competence, if not corruption. We will soon know whether the IRS’s targeting involved officials at the White House or President Obama’s reelection campaign. The flames don’t need Issa’s toxic fuel.
And here’s the irony: the Obama administration basically now faces a question of credibility. Is it incompetent or, failing that, not quite up to snuff or simply lying as Issa claims.
But Issa has not proven a thing. And, in the process, he’s destroying his own credibility — and the seriousness of his investigations.
Which should worry a lot of Republicans.
And please the White House.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.