Note to Darrell Issa: The Investigative Door Swings Both Ways

Jan. 3, 2011 - PRLog -- The name to watch for in 2011 is not yet a household name but may be soon and may be by design.  Politics is about ego after all and for one Darrell Issa a Republican Congressman from California and the incoming Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight has made it clear that he has one and only one goal: to make President Obama’s life a living hell for the next two years.  His reasoning is without justification and because I believe turnabout is fair play and I want you to understand that I will hold Mr. Issa as responsible as he claims he will hold the President.

You need to understand a bit about how members of Congress become Chairs of committees.  They buy their way in, literally.  The formula is simple, provable and expected.

Here’s how it works.  Every single member of Congress no matter who they are are expected to do two things.  They are expected to continue to raise money for their own reelection and the more they raise the better off they are.  They are also expected to raise money for other causes that can be financed through their reelection accounts.  So, if you need let’s say $1 million dollars to assure reelection and you raise $4 million dollars, you are EXPECTED to spread that money around to other causes within your Party.  The more you raise, they more you spread around and the more influence you buy.  In Mr. Issa’s case he was able to buy the powerful Chairmanship of the House Oversight Committee.

Congratulations!  We now have a corrupt system of buying power and access holding peers accountable and going on witch hunts based on the extreme views of the opposing Party and deciding what particular issues will be persecuted for no other reason than they want to.  It’s the truth.

Mr. Issa is concerned that the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) fund has created corruption.  Of course TARP was created under President George W. Bush and Mr. Issa himself voted for TARP under President Bush, but once President Obama was elected and became the defacto shepherd of the TARP monies suddenly there was a problem.  Suddenly in Mr. Issa’s world, no matter the checks and balances, no matter the measured and proved successes of TARP, he now feels some kind of moral obligation to investigate the President and his administration.  Why?  

Mr. Issa has been running at the mouth for a few months now about how his sole focus is to investigate and obstruct as muhh as his committee can.  He has no reason to do this. There is no one program to point to.  There is not a single faux pas to use as a guide or an opening to do this, but who the hell needs truth or fact to move an agenda forward.

Mr. Issa just assumes through the examples of his own Party that as there are a billion dollars at stake corruption must be close at hand.  Although he cannot demonstrate one account of illegal activity his chore is to be the guardian of the public trust when his true goal is to create distrust.  I don’t doubt that he will be able to find some aberration of which he will turn his full force and focus on.  I’m sure that he will find an individual who has been less than exemplary and will bring the force and power of his office to bring justice where do. But at what cost to the public?  

Any administration has had its fair share of idiots to be sure, but let’s turn back the clock just a few short years to the corruption on the office of the Vice President and Dick Cheney and the egregious behavior of Scooter Libby and the outing of CIA operative Valeria Plame or the ongoing dubious behavior of Karl Rove.  Maybe more damning than the Nixon White House history may ultimately prove that the Bush II White House was more corrupt and illegal than any in the history of this country.  

Democrats could have easily spent the fist two years of majority rule in this past Congress investigating the Bush administration but President Obama would have none of it, to the chagrin of many.  One of Obama’s first admonishments was to move on from Bush so he could move the country away from that mind set, right or wrong.  

Mr. Issa needs to be mindful we have serious issues to meet head on in the upcoming days and the patience of the American people will be tested quickly if he starts fishing in a rock garden instead of a lake.  His bait in a misdirected morality and his goal is a bigger and inflated ego.  But I am mindful as many of you are that we are not in the mood to let the Republicans lie to us any longer and we will not sit pat while they do that this time around as there is too much at stake, so be careful Mr. Issa because the rules apply to you as well and in order for you to maintain this Chairmanship you must continue to raise money and spread it around and for that we will hold you accountable.  That is a promise.

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Tony Trupiano is a former national syndicated progressive radio talk show host, author, and a former candidate for Congress. He is also a nationally recognized media trainer. He can be reached at tony@mediatony.com and can read his Blog at http://www.mediatraining.me and is a contributing editor at http://www.chattahbox.com