Darrell Issa Is Retiring, Just Like Everyone Else. Record number of House GOPers have already quit

[KelleyKramer]

Darrell Issa Is Retiring, Just Like Everyone Else

A record number of House Republicans have already thrown in the towel.

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http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/01/darrell-issa-is-retiring-just-like-everyone-else/

Democrats’ path to retaking the House just got a little bit easier. Again. On Wednesday, longtime California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa announced that he would retire from Congress rather than seek re-election this fall. Issa’s departure brings the number of GOP retirements from the House to 30—a record for the party—and comes just two days after another embattled Southern Californian, Rep. Ed Royce, announced his own departure. It is a gift to Democrats who had already put Issa’s district near the top of their list of 2018 targets, and who came within 1,621 votes of toppling the former car-alarm magnate in 2016.

After Trump’s election, progressive activists had made a special target of Issa. They did so both because of his newfound vulnerability—Issa’s affluent suburban district, like others in Orange County and the Atlanta and Houston areas, was one of those places where long-suffering Democrats made substantial gains in 2016—and because his notoriety. Issa cultivated a reputation as a partisan attack dog as chairman of the House oversight committee and took the lead in publicizing Obama-era scandals, such as Fast and Furious. His 49th district has become a hub for “Resistance” groups; just one day before Issa announced he would not seek re-election, a San Diego Indivisible chapter held a retirement party for the congressman outside one of his district offices.

With the retirements of Issa and Royce, two of the so-called “California Seven”—Republican members of Congress from Golden State districts won by Hillary Clinton—have now thrown up a white flag. It’s your move, Dana Rohrabacher.


.

[Hortensis]

1. "Its your move, Dana Rohrabacher."

Or perhaps Mueller's?

Vanity Fair: Like Sergey Kislyak, Rohrabacher has always hovered around the periphery of the Trump-Russia story. In April 2016, a Russian official provided Rohrabacher with a memo containing the same accusations against Democratic donors and the Hillary Clinton campaign that Natalia Veselnitskaya would detail to Donald Trump Jr. during their now-infamous meeting at Trump Tower months later. The same month Trump won the presidency, Rohrabacher met with Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, and his son, Michael Flynn Jr., both of whom have emerged as key figures in the Russia probe and are expected to be indicted by Mueller’s team. In February, Rohrabacher dined privately with Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of the Russian central bank who reportedly sought to set up a “backdoor” between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump. And this past August, Rohrabacher traveled to London to meet with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, whom U.S. investigators believe acted as an intermediary for the Kremlin to release thousands of stolen e-mails damaging to the Clinton campaign. ...

Mueller is seeking to interview the congressman about his meeting with Flynn and Flynn Jr., while both the F.B.I. and the Senate Intelligence Committee want to hear Rohrabacher’s account of the meeting with Assange. Meanwhile, Rohrabacher’s fellow G.O.P. lawmakers have moved to limit his power. According to the Times, Ed Royce, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, ousted Rohrabacher’s top aide, Paul Behrends, in July amid questions about his ties to Russian lobbyists, and exerted greater oversight over Rohrabacher’s actions as chairman of the subcommittee.

Rohrabacher in LA Times:

“I am unequivocally running for re-election and confident that my views reflect the values and the needs of my constituents here in Orange County,” Rohrabacher said in a statement posted to his website and on social media. “I’ve never run away from a fight over things I believe and I’m not about to start now.”

[rurallib]

6. maybe he can get a nice dacha on the Black Sea

[Hortensis]

8. Sure could, might be less than thrilled with that

authoritarian state if he crossed it. Oddball ethics, always in, associating with, or courting trouble in various ways, but also one of few in congress who's managed to come out poor. Maybe Putin would buy him a nice dacha. The triplets are entering their teens now.

[OnDoutside]

2. Chuck Toad reckons Issa is looking around for another district to run in.

[B Stieg]

3. Wow. Apparently, "self-deportation" does work...

in Congress!

Bu-bye, Darrell!

[underpants]

5. LOL

[Scarsdale]

4. Will Issa be

returning to his precious job, stealing cars and burning (well insured) buildings? He must be exhausted, trying to implicate Hillary Clinton in - well - ANYTHING!! Poor Trey Gowdy will have to take the reins on any Hillary related smear jobs now.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. ** Breaking ** This just in .....

Lawrence Welk has proclaimed the Congressman's retirement an "Issa-Breaker"