House Republicans Who Protect Darrell Issa Should Be Thrown Out of Congress

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One of the ethical duties imposed on attorneys in the United States by rules governing professional responsibility is to report misconduct if an attorney becomes aware that either a fellow attorney or a judge has committed an act in violation of the rules of ethical conduct. Failure to do so subjects the attorney failing to make the report liable for disciplinary action. Although not part of the judicial system, one would hope that the United States Congress has a similar rule governing professional responsibility to report misconduct by one of its members regardless of party affiliation or rank on an important committee. The House of Representatives has rules that are necessary to keep members honest and within the bounds of ethical conduct befitting a congressional representative, but like corrupt lawyers protecting corrupt colleagues, it is rare that members of one party will report one of their own or hold them accountable for unethical conduct.

For at least the past three years, Republicans allowed House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa to waste taxpayer money, leak sensitive information, fabricate scandals, and blatantly lie with impunity in the House and to the public. To expect even one House Republican to report Issa’s despicably un-American and manifestly unethical behavior for investigation and discipline is too much to expect from Republicans. They are as invested in perpetuating Issa’s corrupt machinations as he is, and unfortunately minority Democrats are unable to launch an ethics investigation into Issa’s corruption and throw him out of Congress.  A couple of weeks ago when Issa finished talking during another hearing focused on his concocted Internal Revenue Service scandal, he abruptly closed the hearing to prevent any Democrats from speaking and turned off Representative Elijah Cummings microphone to silence the panel’s ranking member.

It was too much for Democrats who offered a motion condemning Issa for his preferred method of silencing Democrats. The Chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Marcia Fudge (D-OH), offered the “privileged resolution” against Issa that simply said, “The House of Representatives strongly condemns the offensive and disrespectful manner in which Chairman Darrell E. Issa conducted the hearing.” Republicans killed the resolution by voting to table the motion by a 211 to 186 vote. Equally unethical Speaker of the House John Boehner really liked the way Issa silenced an African American representative and told reporters “I think Mr. Issa was within his rights to adjourn the hearing when he did.”

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A week later Democrats again attempted to officially condemn Issa’s dictatorial acts and offered a second resolution to reprimand him for a pattern of “offensive” behavior against Democrats. The second resolution failed like the first with Republicans voting to protect their corrupt colleague, but the Republican presiding over the session stopped the reading of the so-called “privileged resolution” because he claimed Democrats were in “violation of the House rules” for holding up an image of Issa cutting Cummings’ microphone off. The second resolution expanded the claims of Issa’s abusive behavior including trying to prevent a witness from answering questions from Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), and once again turning off the microphone of another Democrat, Rep. John Tierny (D-MA). The resolution also made a point of condemning Issa for behavior well beyond forbidding Democrats from questioning witnesses including excluding Democrats from committee investigative meetings, and leaking details to the press that were not shared with Democrats.

The history of Republicans protecting their lying, corrupt colleague is important because yesterday Issa had the temerity to accuse the former chief information officer for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Tony Trenkle, of being dishonest in testimony to Issa’s “one-sided political spectacle” of another fabricated scandal regarding the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act. Issa said in a letter that, “Your memory consistently failed when you were asked about the federal exchanges and the security risks you had knowledge of prior to the Oct. 1, 2013 launch, and you stated ‘I don’t recall’ a staggering 95 times in full or partial response to Committee’s questions. It appears that you were not candid and fully forthcoming with the Committee. We therefore write to ask that you make yourself available as soon as possible for another transcribed interview in order to clarify your role and actions implementing ObamaCare.” For Issa to accuse Trenkle of not being “candid and fully forthcoming” is the height of hypocrisy. Issa has lied, met secretly with a corrupt inspector general, leaked important documents to the press Democrats were not privy to, and all to further his fabricated conspiracy theories he and the media call scandals.

Issa’s fabricated scandals have served Republicans well in their drive to waste taxpayer time and money, rake in campaign donations, and use the “one-sided political spectacles” to smear the Obama Administration. Democrats on the Oversight Committee sent Issa a letter detailing two secret meetings without Democrats’ knowledge he conducted with J. Russell George, the inspector general who followed Issa’s instructions to the letter  targeting conservative groups seeking 501 (C) tax exemption to create Issa’s “IRS scandal” and the rollout of the ACA Issa is rabid to portray as a scandal. In both meetings Issa instructed the inspector general to forbid his staff from allowing Democrats access to the meeting or the notes of the plot to fabricate scandals.

Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI) said after Republicans shut down attempts to condemn Issa’s unethical behavior that “Chairman Issa’s conduct in committee and his repeated attempts to silence Democrats is offensive and needs to be condemned. We live in a democracy, one that allows for open debate and dissension. That’s the way our framers intended for our legislative process to work, where there would be respectful debates in Congress about the important issues we face as a nation. That’s exactly the kind of partisan behavior my constituents are fed up with.” Kildee is absolutely right on all but one count; we most certainly do not live in a democracy because Republicans have not allowed open debate or dissension in the House, or in public forums, since Americans elected an African American man as President. Whether it was teabaggers shutting down town hall meetings during the debate over healthcare reform, or Republicans directing law enforcement to arrest and evict their own constituents for asking questions during town halls, or Republicans threatening journalists with arrest and imprisonment, the GOP is terrified of open debate and dissension and will not allow either.

Darrell Issa is as corrupt a politician as he was a criminal before figuring out a means of scamming the public by serving as a slimy representative of morons who keep electing him to Congress. However corrupt and unethical Issa may be, and he is a monumentally unethical disgrace, he typifies Republicans who lie, cheat, and perpetuate much more mischief than forbidding House Democrats from speaking or secretly plotting to fabricate scandals. For five years Republicans have worked diligently to destroy democracy and throughout it all they followed their corrupt exemplar Issa’s pattern of lying, unethical conduct, and silencing debate and dissent. The entirety of House Republicans deserve to be officially condemned for protecting Darrell Issa,  and since it will never happen it is up to voters to condemn them at the polls by throwing the corrupt cretins out of Congress.


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