A New York Times editorial from just two days ago pointed out the numerous things that Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) has done in attempt “to obstruct President Obama, who he called ‘one of the most corrupt presidents in modern times,’ by any means at his disposal.”
This was just two days ago. However, as easy as it was to label Issa an obstructionist, a divisive figure in national politics, an irrational and self-important blowhard who enabled conspiracy theorists or a partisan hack, if you were to label him treasonous, you would have risked coming off as unhinged as Issa himself.
Until later that day.
So Issa was shooting at anything that moved (and a lot of things that didn’t) in an attempt to take down Obama. However, as much of an annoyance as he had been, this time he released reams of documents - that “weren’t provided by (the) State (Department). So there wasn’t any discussion about their sensitivity prior to the committee revealing them for all to see” - and now allies of the US in a very tense region find their lives in danger.
In a region already filled with tumult, Issa put party before country with untempered recklessness and endangered the lives of people who could help us there, made damn sure others there will be unable to trust us, and severely compromised any and all investigations we are making or planned to make into the events there in the recent past or even down the road.
As John Kerry said:
I am furious beyond words at Issa. His brazen actions might cause the death of friends, might cause others to turn their back on us, and will hamper us in a volatile region for who knows how long.
He compromised American interests and American security and did so just to spite Obama. He failed with everything else, so what’s a few deaths of allies as long as he can finally get something to stick against the Obama administration (although this of course probably won’t even accomplish that).
What Issa did was disgusting. Sadly, this Pit thread is probably the worst that will happen to the cowardly thug.
Even though many are calling for Issa to be kicked off the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and resign from Congress, how likely is this to happen? It’s like Julian Assange and Valerie Plame rolled into one guy who should fucking know better yet who will likely not even suffer - even if people die because of his actions.
Darrell Issa is a traitor. He put party before country. All of this is simply inexcusable.
Just to clarify one thing; Plame was not a leaker but rather the victim of a leak. I’m pretty sure you knew that but the wording of that sentence makes it sound otherwise.
What disgusts me about this whole Libya thing is the way that the Republicans are crying crocodile tears over the deaths of four Americans.
I could have sworn that the last time a Republican President was in power there was an attack on US soil, that the POTUS had been warned about, which killed 3000 people.
Maybe my memory isn’t too good, but I seem to recall that POTUS using those attacks to justify an illegal war which resulted in the deaths of 4,000 US military and over 100,000 innocent Iraqi civilians.
The sheer hypocrisy of Republicans claiming that this issue is proof that Obama is the greatest incompetent liar to ever hold the office of President (and that’s how they’re spinning the Libyan attacks on all the other message boards around the web, and how I think Issa justifies this action in his own tiny mind) is truly and utterly mind-boggling.
Even if what happened in Libya was Obama’s fault (which it’s not) he’d have to make thousands, or even tens of thousands, of similar screw-ups before he even began to approach the despicable legacy ot the last Republican to hold office.
I can’t quite get my head around the way people actually think like that, to be totally honest.
Now he’s gone too far? That guy’s been a huge asshole for along time, a megalomaniacal dick who abuses his power to obstruct the entire government based on his fantasies like some modern-day McCarthy. Fuck him.
There’s a wide gulf between being warned that Osama Bin Laden has cells in the United States that seek to hijack airplanes and failing to stop it (both true), and “letting it happen.” But after the last month, there is no doubt in my mind that Republicans would have ignored that difference were the shoe on the other foot. Darrell Issa is just a symptom of the disease.
Yes, now. Being an asshole is not a crime. This, however, is worse than outing the CIA safe house.
Do we have any news professionals here? Would your editor have allowed this? Would you have been guilty of a crime if you had received these documents from a leak and published them (I’m thinking Ellsberg)?
The glaring flaw in this particular lunacy is that, if it was in the power of the President to cook the books on unemployment, why would he wait until a month before the election to do it, when the Republicans have been flogging him with it for three and a half years? Doesn’t make any sense, but then, that doesn’t stop the right wing from believing all sorts of crazy things.