Issa Capades

My congressman, Darrell Issa, is not starting off in his new role as House Oversight Committee Chairmen with a lot of grace. Or comity for that matter. After telling his democratic counterpart, Elijah Cummings that he would be able to make an opening statement yesterday, he pulled the chair out from underneath him and rescinded the offer thirty minutes before the meeting started. He also refused to allow an industry witness from J.P. Morgan to be called before the committee investigating the TARP matter.

Spokesman Kurt Bardella said that Issa killed the idea of opening statements in order to skip the "political speechifying" which ate up time. "If the minority is going to judge the value and success of a hearing based on their political ability to bloviate at the start of it, then so be it. We're of the mindset that Congress should listen more and talk less,"Bardella said.


Cummings, wrote a letter to Issa on Monday in which he said that the majority was withholding documents from Democrats, a charge Issa denies.

It sounds like this a going to be a fractious relationship over the next two years, since the Chairman's staff is accusing the minority member of bloviation, right out of the gate.

Issa of course is a total embarrassment. I have written frequently in the past about his wayward youth, with the car thefts, the gun charges, the old partner getting screwed out of his share in the company. The New Yorker takes up the story this month.

Is it too much to ask that our elected officials act like grown ups, instead of a spoiled child who has to stomp on the rights of the minority because it does not fit his chosen narrative? Of course, with Issa, we have come to expect the worse.