Contemptible Congress

When I was a wee lad, I had the utmost respect for Congress. I was in awe of my then Congressman, Byron Rodgers (D-Denver) who was the essence of a public servant. I was good friends with Congresswoman Pat Schroeder and Congressman & Senator Tim Wirth (who was a neighbor). That all changed after I moved to DC and began working for the government. I discovered that many of the 539 Members of Congress (including the delegates from DC, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands) didn’t really give a damn about their constituents. It was all about getting face time on TV to make it seem as though they were doing something.

This afternoon, Rep. Darrell Issa, chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, pushed through a resolution holding Attorney General Eric Holder in “Contempt of Congress.” Better add my name to that resolution, Issa, because I hold you and the Teabag 112th Congress in the utmost contempt. Obstruction is the motto of this Congress. Sure, Boner Boehner, Cantor, et al claim that it’s not their fault the President cannot enact his agenda. They say he had 2 years of total control. What they don’t bother mentioning is that Senate rethuglicans filibustered almost everything, requiring 60 votes to enact legislation.

But let’s get back to Issa. After being named as chair of his committee, he said that he “want[ed] seven hearings a week, times 40 weeks.”

He also wants to organize aggressive oversight beyond his committee and plans to refer inquiries to other House panels, drawing even more incoming GOP chairmen to the cause of investigating the executive branch.

He wasn’t then or isn’t now interested in making government efficient. He is on a mission to harangue the Obama Administration. He’s trying to make AG Holder his prize trophy to hang on his wall. He’s trying to show everyone he has big balls. But he doesn’t.

So who is the real Darrell Issa? It appears that he might have a criminal past. Well, he is in Congress.

Rep. Darrell Issa’s past includes arrests for weapons charges and auto theft, suspicions of arson, and accusations of intimidation with a gun, but you’d hardly know it from the media’s recent coverage of the new chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. While Issa was substantially mentioned in 15 articles in the nation’s largest newspapers since the last election — including several major profiles — only one of those articles mentioned any of these allegations. Likewise, interviewers did not ask Issa about his alleged criminal past in any of the cable or network interviews he sat for during that period.

Arson! Auto Theft! Assault with a Deadly Weapon! Insurance Fraud!

Issa is a despicable human being and an even worse congressman. He should be the one who’s facing a contempt citation.