If he persists in channeling Joe McCarthy, Darrell Issa deserves a new Edward R. Murrow to bring him down. When 60 Minutes gets tired of polishing up summer reruns, his CBS successors should give us a full portrait.
There is ample material. Issa keeps pushing himself into the national face with outrageous accusations, as McCarthy did, now branding Obama spokesman Jay Carney “a paid liar” over the IRS scandals, as Candy Crowley presses for a “direct link” to the President over actions of an agency branch office.
Democratic frustration comes, not with a bang, but a tweet by former White House senior adviser David Plouffe: “Strong words from Mr Grand Theft Auto and suspected arsonist/insurance swindler. And loose ethically today.”
Plouffe is just grazing a tip of the Issa iceberg: how an impecunious high-school dropout morphed into Congress’ richest man ($450 million) and, as chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, spends full-time not legislating or even investigating for legislation but endlessly prosecuting the Obama Administration for “crimes,” prompting the White House to keep defending itself as Issa himself in his earlier days was forced to do.
Issa, who now burrows into everyone’s life for political paydirt, is sensitive about his own transformation into a car-alarm magnate with a history of car theft, suspicious factory fires, alleged hostile takeovers at gunpoint and shady deals. When Ryan Lizza was reporting on him for the New Yorker two years ago, Issa balked at questions about all that. “Everyone has a past,” he grumped.
Just so. As Issa keeps pursuing his role as Lord High Executioner of everything Obama, his own history and ethics should not be sacrosanct.