Issa Full Bore

Rep. Darrell Issa of California is apparently the GOP’s new head witch hunter, since he has pledged to use the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee, which he chairs, to try to defeat President Obama in 2012. Issa is the multimillionaire who financed the recall efforts against Democratic governor Gray Davis and the election of Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He will have power to subpoena administration officials and others. He has ambitious plans for wide-ranging investigations in President Obama’s administration.

Issa wants each of his seven subcommittees to hold one or two hearings a week. “I want seven hearings a week, times 40 weeks!” he told Politico recently. He sees his job as seeking and spotlighting “failures.” Outgoing chairman Henry Waxman (Democrat from California) held 203 hearings over two years, but Issa plans 280 such hearings during the next year alone.

Issa’s probe is expected to include the following:

The administrations response to the BP oil spill; ACORN, the liberal nonprofit group that disbanded after a right-wing criticism campaign; the $787-billion economic stimulus plan; the EPA’s carbon endangerment rule; the New Black Panther Party’s voter-intimidation case which grew out of the 2008 presidential election; and the appointment of presidential advisors called “czars.”

The committee’s grandstanding and partisan attacks could backfire in the GOP’s face.

As citizens we must be aware of Issa’s plan to damage President Obama’s reputation during the 2012 elections.