House Democrat Slams Darrell Issa For His Latest Benghazi Publicity Stunt

[babylonsister]

House Democrat Slams Darrell Issa For His Latest Benghazi Publicity Stunt
By: Jason Easley
Saturday, May, 3rd, 2014, 3:34 pm


Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) shredded Darrell Issa’s Benghazi subpoena of Sec. of State John Kerry by calling it a publicity stunt.

In a press release describing the subpoena of Secretary of State Kerry, Rep. Issa (R-CA) said, “The State Department’s response to the congressional investigation of the Benghazi attack has shown a disturbing disregard for the Department’s legal obligations to Congress. Compliance with a subpoena for documents is not a game. Because your Department is failing to meet its legal obligations, I am issuing a new subpoena to compel you to appear before the Committee to answer questions about your agency’s response to the congressional investigation of the Benghazi attack.” (Holding bogus hearings and launching expensive investigations at taxpayer expense also isn’t a game, but Issa seems to have no issues with that.)

Ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) took Issa apart.

In a statement, Rep. Cummings described Issa’s efforts to circumvent the investigative process:

Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell E. Issa took the unprecedented step of issuing a unilateral subpoena demanding that a sitting cabinet Secretary testify before the Oversight Committee—in just over two weeks—and accusing him of a crime. Chairman Issa did not first send a letter making his request, he did not call to determine if the Secretary would be in the country, and he did not hold a Committee vote on his subpoena.

In response to Issa’s subpoena, the Committee’s Ranking Member, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, stated: “These actions are not a responsible approach to congressional oversight, they continue a trend of generating unnecessary conflict for the sake of publicity, and they are shockingly disrespectful to the Secretary of State.”

Issa has disrespected President Obama on a regular basis, so his disrespect of Sec. Kerry is no surprise. Rep. Cummings was correct. This whole contrived Benghazi push is nothing but a desperate publicity stunt. In March, Issa turned off Cummings’ microphone, and fled the room when a show hearing on the IRS blew up in his face. Issa has consistently claimed with no supporting evidence that President Obama is behind the IRS scandal.

more...

http://www.politicususa.com/2014/05/03/house-democrat-slams-darrell-issa-latest-benghazi-publicity-stunt.html

[monmouth3]

1. I hope Kerry sends his regrets, says he has too much real work to do...n/t

[JDPriestly]

2. What in the world would Kerry know about Benghazi? He was serving in the Senate at the time.

[karynnj]

6. I assume it would be about any effort in the State Department to withhold documents

after the fact. However, that is absolutely illogical. Their reason is that the State Department gave this email to Judicial Watch due to their FOI request. Judicial Watch is a right wing advocacy group. If, the State Department was actually hiding anything, they would not have given it to Judicial Watch. In addition, there is nothing different here that was not included in the earlier released emails/documents.

What is really stupid is that at the very worst, the administration opted to characterize the attack's MOTIVATIONS in a way that the right disagrees with. The fact is we NEVER actually know the complete motivation to anything like this and it is likely to be complicated.

In addition, there were protests in something like 20 countries! (Ask Issa's base what they would think of a video that showed Jesus as being a person they would abhor - which is the closest equivalent to the video.)

In fact, one forgotten reason for making this an issue back in 2012 was that within an hour of the attack being known, Romney blasted the embassy in Egypt for putting out a statement that the video was not approved by the US and did not reflect what Americans think. ROMNEY conflated it with Benghazi by saying that it was wrong to put out this statement (designed to tamp down anger in Egypt) because of what happened in Benghazi - ignoring the statement was put up hours BEFORE Benghazi happened. This really hurt Romney and it should have. ( I think this is accurate - it is from memory because I need to leave now and couldn't check it.)

[JDPriestly]

7. Republicans have, in my opinion, lost their reason for being.

Trickle down has not worked. The national debt is coming back under control because we have a Democratic president. The ACA is becoming more and more popular. The seeds the the Occupy movement planted in the minds of ordinary people about the economic plight of the middle class are beginning to sprout. The Republicans know that they cannot excite most Americans with their demand for lower taxes. More and more Americans are aware that lower when Republicans talk about lower taxes, it's bad news for the middle class, for most Americans.

So, the Republicans are just desperate. So we get Benghazi.

I have questions about Benghazi and what was going on there but the Republicans are not asking or answering them.

Personally, I think the Republicans and Fox News in particular are just mad because Petraeus was outed and fired and he was their darling boy.

[karynnj]

8. You could be right about the reasons they are still on Benghazi

To me it makes no sense. If it were still before the election, they could be mad that Romney blew a real chance to look good. However, that would have meant issuing a comment that this was a tragedy that should not be politicized. Instead, what could have hurt Obama, ended up actually helping him because Romney looked so graven.

That said - the Obama administration certainly was concerned how it was portrayed. The menu shows a concern that it could be used to suggest the entire Middle East policy was in tatters - something not that far from truth. (Bush's was obviously worse.)

It is interesting that no one hears of Petraeous any more - and there was a time where some wanted him to run - even as President - as a Republican. Haven't heard that for a LOOONG time.

What is weird is that it is NOT illegal or unethical to try to put the best face on something. For instance, I bet by 2004 Bush knew things were a mess in Iraq - yet he spun things as making the world safer! That after he lied us into war -- on which there were fewer hearings than Benghazi! There was NOTHING to cover up.

[napkinz]

3. Darrell Issa

more at http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024902613

[Faux pas]

4. Great stuff!

Thanks!

[Faux pas]

5. LOL There is no 'there' there.

He needs to be shut down.

[quadrature]

9. can Kerry claim executive privilege?

as former chairman of Senate foreign relations
committee, he knows a lot about what happened.

[Cha]

10. ..

[gratuitous]

11. I'm sure Rep. Cummings was on all the Sunday shows, right?

Oooh, listen! Crickets!

Apparently, "hearing from the party out of power" doesn't hold true for the House. Or "getting a person of color" on the show so it doesn't look like quite such a suburban PTA meeting. Or "new voices." Or a "contrarian view" when it isn't Sen. McCain.

[Scuba]

12. Issa's base loves it, and sends him money when he pulls this shit. He won't stop.