The Appearance of Impropriety in Darrell Issa’s Office
At this point in House Oversight & Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrel Issa’s tenure, the American public has come to expect hearings full of ad hominem attacks, politically motivated inquiries, and investigations stacked to favor Issa’s preferred industries and Republican campaign contributors.
Issa’s consistent pattern of “oversight” in the form of partisan witch-hunts and Obama-bashing has finally sapped the committee of any remaining credibility. Even without a specific conflict of interest in each hearing, he has created such a general appearance of impropriety that everything he does is suspect. The official ethics complaint isn’t helping matters either. In the past week, thanks to some sharp reporting by Courage Campaign’s Issa Watch and other groups, we’ve learned that:
- At the same time he railed against the Obama Administration’s green energy initiatives, he sought a Department of Energy loan for a major GOP campaign contributor.
- He’s continuing to protect his friend Rupert Murdoch by refusing to investigate the NewsCorp scandal, despite calls from his colleagues to do so.
- His office violated a federal judge’s order by releasing sealed information to the press about an ongoing investigation.
The Oversight Committee’s mission statement is to “investigate and expose waste, fraud and abuse.” In reality, Rep. Issa need not look far beyond his office door.
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