Back in October 2010, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) told Rush Limbaugh he considers President Obama “one of the most corrupt presidents in modern times.” Ruth Marcus noted soon after, “If Issa believes this, he is deranged. If he doesn’t and is saying it anyway, he is dangerous.”
The jury’s still out on which of these is true, but Issa is still pushing the same bizarre line.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) told Bloomberg TV that the Obama government is “proving to be” the “most corrupt in history.”
Said Issa: “We are busy in Washington with a corrupt government, with a government that I said perhaps because of the money, the amount of TARP and stimulus funds, was going to be the most corrupt government history and it is proving to be just exactly that.”
Marcus’ deranged-or-dangerous frame continues to ring true.
Part of the problem here is that Issa desperately wants Americans to believe the Obama administration is corrupt, but can’t point to any legitimate examples of corruption. In his Bloomberg interview, the conservative Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee pointed to Solyndra, which proved to be meaningless, and the GSA conferences, which isn’t an example of corruption (and which the administration uncovered in the first place).
Indeed, the great irony of Issa’s strange attack is that the Obama administration, after more than three years in office, has been remarkably scandal-free. After the corruption, investigations, grand juries, and criminal probes that dominated the Bush/Cheney era, it’s a pleasant change of pace.
The other part of this that strikes me as interesting is the messenger himself: given Darrell Issa’s background, it’s tempting to think he’d be a little more circumspect about slinging mud at anyone.
Every time I see Issa throw around wild accusations about Obama’s imaginary wrongdoing, I’m reminded of Issa’s own real-world scandals. Last year, the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza had a fascinating piece reviewing Issa’s rise in wealth and power, despite the “troubles” the right-wing congressman has had along the way.









