JIM COOPER: This committee is a Kangaroo Court.
DARRELL ISSA: Don't call my committee a Kangaroo Court! I run this damn committee!
JIM COOPER: Mr. Chairman, I'm a member of this committee too. We work together. You do realize this, right?
DARRELL ISSA: In case you aren't aware, this committee's goal is simply to find the truth. We approach things in a non-partisan manner because that's what we do. Is that clear?
The good news, it seems, is that the headline coming out of the Healthcare.gov hearing with White House Chief Technology Officer Todd Park testifying is not that Park survived. For what it seems based on the hearing is that Park handled himself fine.
The bad news is that the House Oversight Government Reform Committee's reputation is continuing to tank thanks to Darrell Issa and his Kangaroo Court, which Rep. Jim Cooper accuses Issa of turning the committee into.
In addition, this gives more ammunition potential for Issa's Democratic challenger in California's 49th Congressional District, Dave Peiser. Scroll down to the end of this story for links on Peiser's website, donation page, Twitter page, etc.
As Washington Post's Dana Milbank observes, the Kangaroo Court accusation Cooper makes of Issa is pretty much fitting:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
“The American people do not want to see a kangaroo court here,” Rep. Jim Cooper, a Tennessee Democrat, said midway through Wednesday’s four-hour prosecution of Obama administration technology experts by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) hopped to attention. “ ‘Kangaroo court’ is quite an accusation,” he said, “and I hope the gentleman from Tennessee, when he uses the term kangaroo court in the future, will think better of making an accusation.”
Sorry, Mr. Chairman, but the pouch fits. It was indeed a kangaroo court, and Issa was the main marsupial.
No human makes leaps quite like Darrell Issa. He leaps to conclusions. He makes huge leaps of logic. He leaps before he looks. And he invariably leaps right into the White House, alleging high-level political misbehavior and administration corruption for just about everything that goes wrong.
Before we continue on with Milbank's column, here's the exchange between Congressman Cooper and Congressman Kangaroo (aka Issa):
Milbank also adds:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
On Wednesday, the topic was Obamacare, but the California Republican followed the script he used when investigating “Fast and Furious” gun-running, the Benghazi attack, and IRS targeting: make inflammatory allegations of high-level skullduggery, release selective information that appears to support the case while withholding exculpatory details, then use his chairman’s privileges to turn hearings into episodes of “The Darrell Issa Show.”
He went well beyond his own five minutes of questioning time Wednesday without halting, then cut off the ranking Democrat on the panel when he tried to do the same. Issa proceeded to interrupt no fewer than 12 members of the panel — Republicans and Democrats alike — to make additional speeches and ask further questions.
“Would the gentleman yield?”
“Would the gentlelady yield?”
“Could you yield for just 10 seconds?”
“Point of privilege!”
The Darrell Issa Show eh? Anyone want to see this?
In addition, Milbank observes that Issa is really contradicting his own statement by proving his Kangaroo Court really is fully-functional:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
In testimony Wednesday, however, an administration IT expert testified that he ordered the “shopper” function disabled until defects could be repaired and that there had been no political interference.
“So when Chairman Issa stated on national television that the White House ordered you . . . to disable the shopper function in September for political reasons, to avoid consumer sticker shock, that’s not true, is it?” asked Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.).
“I object,” Issa howled. “The gentleman is repeatedly disparaging and mischaracterizing what I’ve said.” Tierney then proceeded to read Issa’s quotes, verbatim.
The chairman, who made a fortune in car alarms before getting into politics, opened the hearing with his theory that this was “a monumental mistake” made because “efforts were taken to cut corners to meet political deadlines.”
He then allowed the witnesses to say a few words, but couldn’t help interjecting a question between the witnesses’ statements, before adding, “Please, don’t answer yet.”
Furthermore, it's clear Issa and his mannerisms and conduct are really partisan with a sweet-talking layer to them. When I say sweet-talking, I'm referring to Issa's ability to creatively excuse himself from any accountability with his actions no matter what the odds.
For more information on Democratic Challenger in CA-49 Dave Peiser and voter registration statistics numbers of CA-49, links are below:
Dave Peiser for Congress: http://www.peiserforcongress.com/
Donate:
ActBlue: https://secure.actblue.com/...
Nationbuilder: https://peiserforcongress.nationbuilder.com/...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/...
Twitter: https://twitter.com/...
Information: info@peiserforcongress.com
Here's the voter registration as of February 2013 by the actual CA-49 Congressional District, which combines parts of San Diego and Orange County. Note the number of Decline-to-State/Independents:
http://www.sos.ca.gov/...
Orange County:
Democrats: 22,239
Republicans: 44,833
Decline-to-State/Independent: 19,077
San Diego County:
Democrats: 84,282
Republicans: 107,221
Decline-to-State/Independent: 70,938
Total:
Democrats: 106,521
Republicans: 152,054
Decline-to-State/Independent: 90,015
Here's the recent polling per PPP showing Darrell Issa vulnerable thanks to the government shutdown:
http://s3.moveon.org/...
Disapproval: 49%
Approval: 43%
If you live in or near California's 49th Congressional District and want a reason to start voter registration drives or take part in them, note that San Diego County Democratic Party has a calendar that keeps track of all activity going on, whether local Democratic club meetings or voter registration drive events:
http://www.sddemocrats.org/...
Start firing up the base in CA-49!