Darrell Issa Adds Russert Outrage to His Hall of Shame
By Jon Perr Tuesday Jun 17, 2008 1:30pm
As ThinkProgress reported earlier Tuesday, the execrable California Republican Congressman Darrell Issa used the day of Tim Russert's wake to appropriate the memory of the late Meet the Press host for political purposes. After members of the House offered their condolences and eulogies to Russert while discussing a resolution in his honor, Issa took to floor to make a pitch for off-shore drilling:
"We are going to miss Tim Russert when it comes to the people on both sides of the issue of why we have $5 oil - $5 gasoline and $135 oil. I think Tim Russert would have been just the right guy to hold people accountable, who would talk about the 68 million acres that are, quote, inactive, while in fact 41 million are under current lease and use and are producing millions of barrels of oil and natural gas a day...
...So, Madam Speaker, I am going to miss Tim Russert because this debate is too important not to have a fact-oriented, unbiased moderator who could in fact bring to bear the truth that we need to have."
As abominable as Issa's performance today was, it hardly ranks as his worst. From attacking the families of dead Blackwater contractors and accusing Valerie Plame of perjury to playing a vital role in purging a U.S. attorney and committing myriad other outrages, Issa had long since guaranteed himself a particularly hot seat in Dante's inner circle. Perrspectives has a look back at the Top 10 Moments from Darrell Issa's Hall of Shame...
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just a guess that this clown made worst person in the world......grade a ...jerk
.
So, Tim Russert = BIG OIL... ?
.
Is there any district so Republican as to not throw this ass out of office??
this guy is unrivaled in absolute scumbaggery. yes there are morons in california too. who's electing this weasel?
@ #1
Yup. He made Worst Person last night.
"I think Tim Russert would have been just the right guy to hold people accountable"
Yup. Cheney's Bitch would have nailed em.
Does he dance on graves in his spare time?
Wow, so I guess you Republican lurkers out there agree with this dipshit, I know you don't know your facts but really do you think that anyone should disrespect a dead man just to make a buck?
I mean, I know Republicans are the enemy of America but you always say you people are close to God, so wouldn't that mean you should know the difference between right and wrong? Oh, I forgot I'm addressing Republicans and you have no morals so it would be hard to tell right from wrong. Never mind.
Pimping the dead. Strictly Republican.
WTF! This man has no shame! What's next? Advertisements during funerals? How could he possibly be more calluos? Is this what our politicians think appropiate? Jesus!
there has been chatter about the identity crisis the republican party has.........well this guy puts a whole new meaning to that.....let's go with asshole
That's strange... Russert's death reminded me of abortion.
This is like selling as space on a casket.
Oops, make that ad space on a casket
shame on Issevil, Hell when Tim was alive the right considered him the left along with the rest of the SCLM. When both sides think you play for the other team it must mean he was doing a good job as a journalist. I think Tim, since we are guessing what a dead man would think or do, would point out that only a fraction of the leases already obtained are producing right now.
Why wouldn't they drill what they already have? At 130 a barrel it is now profitable to extract oil where it wasn't profitable at 30 a barrel. Drill whatcha got you greedy mfers, then come begging for more.
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Oh, Hell - people like this clown do the same thing to God. They are so sure they know God's will - and now - Tim Russert's?
Dear Rep. Issa
Please stop talking now.
Thank you,
American Public
Environmentalists make the Timmeh cry.
Dahgrostab'ph-r-i @ 8:
No sooner do you ask than this piece chimes in with...
John @ 12:
perfect audition piece for a job with fox....asshole like one of us
God damned Christian fascist pile of shit! Lovely morality these Christian "family values" mother fuckers have, huh?
Guys like Rep Issa is the reason I always blame the
American voter for the troubles that plague this nation.
Who voted for this guy? I wonder what his voters think of this latest display? If he were my Congreeman, I would cringe, but then again, since when did Repubs feel shame?
I'm from California and I apologize to everyone for his continued appearance in DC. Granted, he's from the opposite end of CA from me, and it’s really their fault, but I'm embarrassed nonetheless.
Represents North San Diego County, La Jolla, Del Mar, etc. Lots of BIG money and very conservative (and organized) people, would vote Issa in every time. But face it, he's no threat to anyone, to far right to get moderate Reps to agree with him on the time of Day. And just give him a microphone and he'll make a fool of himself every time. Face it, there are extremely liberal representatives who the moderates can't handle either. Extreme is extreme on either side. One just has bit more class regarding the departed.
This reminds me of when I was at my grandmother's funeral. It was presided over by a holy-roller uncle preacher man. As I went up to the casket all teary-eyed and saying goodbye to my granny for the last time, he had the balls to come over and try to use the situation to "save" me or make me promise to go to church. Scumbag opportunist.
I think if Jesus were alive, he would deffinately approve offshore drilling. After all God stuffed all those Jesus Horses in the ground to make go go juice for our SUVs so we could go to church and whoreship all of the nice thing we can buy.
After all "GAS" is just short for "God Approved Sulfides".
p.s. WWJD What would Jesus drill?
Wow. Talk about disrespect.
Yeah, I'm sure Tin would point out that big oil is not drilling on 65million acres they already have.
What a low class sack of shit! I hate him!
P.D. @ 24:
Is he from one of the 3 counties in CA that is refusing to marry gay couples?
What would Reagan do ?
Well, he introduced the ban on off-shore drilling in 1981. Then, his veep turned Prez, Bush-41, passed an executive order in 1990 extending the ban. Then, Bush-43, extended the executive order until 2012.
Sounds to me like the GOP hates America, wants us to stay dependant on dictatorships controlling world oil supplies and they owe the Democratic party and the American people an apology.
World Class schmuck....I really wish Bill Maher would not invite him onto his show, he hasn't done it in a while and he needs to make that a permanent plan.
Bush is now blaming Congress, or more bluntly, Democrats. Let's see, Bush has been Pres. for seven years, and in those seven years he and the Repug congress did nothing. And for Issa for using Russert as a platform, it is immoral.
I'm sure that Jesus would've supported Issa's position also.
It's a shame that he didn't live to see the day when he could support Issa in person.
Ratface @ 23:
I agree. America has gotten so unbelievably stupid and greedy.
That is why we have suffered under so many bogus idiots in congress and the white house.
pissed off patricia @ 7:
It's not technically dancing when your fly is open.
The death of Tim Russert. Shitting all over the environment. Yup, seems like there's a natural connection. The GOP strikes again.
They sit and wait and strike at the first opportunity. High gas prices? Time to resurrect the stupid idea of drilling every inch of this country. Who cares if our oceans are an incredibly important food source. Screw all that and start drilling!
Glad I've reached the point where I see the US as simply a place to live and collect a paycheck. This "just passing though" attitude helps me come to grips with all the amazing bullshit I see.
And believe me, if presented with the right opportunity, I will leave in an instant.
Issa's bio at wiki is interesting. It doesn't mention if he's married or not. It does have some curious crime problems he's had but almost always, the charges were dropped or never filed.
Allegations of criminal involvement in early years
Don from Canada @ 28:
Bah!
Bush and his oil/MIC buddies have been punishing America since the 2006 mid-terms.
They will crash and burn America, then leave the mess for Obama to clean up.
Then they will blame Obama for whatever they no longer blame Bill Clinton on.
Sounds like a good plan for a GOP comeback.
I have proof that God doesn't exist:
If God was kind and omnipotent, then evil would not exist.
Issa exists therefore evil exists.
Therefore God does not exist!
Underground Pirate @ 32:
Nope I believe he is from San Diego, which may very well secede if they find out that them gays can now marry in California.
Big surprise that the mindless, uncaring, Reslugs are surely made of Dog Shit.
Soulless, clueless, and brainless. Do you expect anything different from a republican clown?
WHAT A JERK!
little fucker darrell:
"Rep. Darrell Issa, within months of leaving Army service in the early 1970s, was arrested twice on illegal-weapons charges, including an incident in Michigan that led to a misdemeanor gun conviction.
"Court records on file in Issa's hometown of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, show that in March 1972, one month after getting out of the Army, Issa was arrested on charges of carrying a concealed weapon and auto theft.
A 1998 story in the Los Angeles Times contained allegations that as a businessman in 1982, Issa had brought a gun to the offices of a Cleveland auto- alarm company called A.C. Custom. The newspaper said the incident had occurred the day after Issa had won a court order giving him control of the company because it had failed to repay a $60,000 loan.
According to the newspaper, Issa carried a cardboard box into the office of an A.C. Custom executive named Jack Frantz and told Frantz he was fired. Inside the box was a handgun, the newspaper quoted Frantz as saying. Frantz said Issa had invited him to hold the gun and claimed extensive knowledge of guns and explosive from his Army service, the newspaper said.
The newspaper quoted Issa as saying, "Shots were never fired. . . . I don't recall having a gun. I really don't. I don't think I ever pulled a gun on anyone in my life."
read that last quote one more time: " don't think I ever pulled a gun on anyone in my life"... hard to remember little darrell?
what's weird is that these guy's get off on this behavior i really believe that to be true....they don't care...his constituents are probaly big money n.san diego county residents who hate taxes and big government but love their military/government contract stock holdings...this guy is just a troll for them
I'm not trying to be disrespectful of Russert, but there is a very good article by Pierre Tristan that includes this:
" . . . Respect for the man aside, there’s a matter of respecting journalism when assessing Russert’s place in the trade. That respect has been lacking in the almost universally fawning tributes to Russert and the craft he represented. Journalists and politicians from the president on down have formed yet another procession of praise and prostrations worthy of, say, Diana or Elvis. But Tim Russert?
That’s what journalism as we know it today is, primarily: an adjunct to the cult of celebrity, a shareholder in the business of image management to protect, foremost, the business of America. When the powerful pay tribute to Russert (”he was an institution in both news and politics for more than two decades,” were President Bush’s autopilot words) they’re paying tribute to themselves — to the establishment Russert represented, defended and, unfortunately for us, encrusted.
You expect politics to be a game between scoundrels, to be “the art of governing mankind by deceiving them,” as Isaac Disraeli (Benjamin’s son) put it. You don’t expect journalists to enable the fraud, but to unravel it, at least occasionally. Russert’s reputation rested on the no-nonsense interview designed to do just that. It was more reputation than reality. . . "
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/17/9674/
How to say this in the least threatening manner, in that I would not cause him harm, nor would I encourage others to do so.... but I just can't help but think of how the world would be a better place if Tim Russert were still here instead of Issa.
I dunno. Since Russert was an undoubted tool of the right, the whole thing kinda makes sense to me. It's no less bullshitty than Russert's "Social Security is in Crisis!" meme to use one of many many examples of ol' Timmy getting it wrong. If a tool in life then why not a tool in death?
Screw Issa's Hall of Shame unless you want to add his role in getting Gray Davis recalled as Governor.
Can't anyone in his district grow a pair and field a challenger to unseat him? He's a useless POS sitting in a Congressional seat that can be put to better use.
Off the top of my head, I can't think of a Republican legislator who isn't a scumbag.
I'd have to do some research to decide whether of not this makes Issa the scummiest scumbag among them. But, provisionally, I think he probably is.
Dem or Repub, I don't care. This guy is a waste of air. Why is he wrong on everything?
What a turd.
Possibly irrelevant, but I've never known a 'Darrell' that wasn't a slimy douchebag. What's up with that?
Tim Russert, Cheney's favorite lapdog "journalist" would be PROUD of Issa for helping to further the agenda of Big Oil.
A loving, true tribute to the big Tim, and the work he did for Cheney and his military industrail AND oil interests while alive.
Much, much better in my eyes than the vomitous, irrational, factless fawning of teh sainted timmeh.
28 Don from Canada Says:
p.s. WWJD What would Jesus drill?
Mary Magdalene?
ysbaddaden @ 58:
Offensive AND pants-pissingly funny. Talk about a win-win!
Now, I know this Issa guy seems nice...
What do you expect from a car thief (reformed of course)
come on folks russert was a closet republican, sure hed want big oil drilling in his back yard!
If I may play Devil's Advocate...
God forbid a politician use time paid for by the citizens to press for issues that affect our country instead of mourning the dead. Whatever feelings may be towards Russert or Issa, I have to say that I'm glad SOMEONE is actually trying to do their job instead of waste time.
As for the oil drilling, can someone explain to me why it would be a bad thing? I'm admittedly uneducated on the pros/cons but it seems like a good solution. Bush invaded the middle east and the fighting caused oil shipment to be screwed, supply went down so demand went up. If we generate a larger supply, and from within our own borders especially, our demand should go down as well. Assuming the drilling rigs are equipped with the latest technology, why is this a bad thing?
What a douchebag!! Let's field an opponent and defeat the SOB this year.
Issa's been breathing a lot of fumes.
The joke is that people from the back woods have close relations with their relations maybe that goes for the wealthy too just like royalty back in europe a few centuries ago would explain why this nut job still gets voted into office - those that vote for him are crazy would also explain why my home stae would vote in a empty suit too
I wish you pundits would get it straight, like when it was said that attacking a candidate's wife would earn that person the "hottest circle in hell" .... obviously this author has never read The Inferno either .... the inner circles of Dante's Inferno are ICE COLD ... sheeeesh
Daveyboy@62
easy: environmental devastation. and economic loss for shore states.
really, it is simply a wet-dream for big oil. and, call me nutz, if you think this will change gas prices i have a jesus-shaped scab for sale.
Daveyboy @ 62:
It's not demand driving the price up. It's speculation on future demand.The falling dollar and it's greed We did screw up the Iraq oil supply, so why should our beaches and environment suffer? Notice at the beginning of the war it wasn't about oil? That's what they kept saying at least, except that maybe the oil could mitigate the cost of the war somehow. Now McCains position is we have to stay for national security, the reason? All that oil. So what we need to ask them is, if we let you drill in the artic and offshore, can you bring our troops home so they don't have to die so we can have 3 dollar a gallon gas?
And one more addendum to answer Daveyboy's question. The oil companies are ALREADY leasing 68 million acres of offshore waters and by and large they aren't using it. I mean if they were so "concerned" with drilling to keep the prices down, why wouldn't they make use of the federal lands they already have access to? You want to give them more? That would be utter folly.
What an ass.
Isn't Issa the guy who cried on TV after he learned he wouldn't become the GOP nominee for governor after Gray Davis was recalled?
He cried on TV over this. What a wuss.
Tacky Repubican.
I had just returned from Canada when I learned of Russert leaving the earth.Not a tear did I shed.Nor will I when Issa leaves.
From Media Matters on Russert`s performance at a presidential debate:
"He didn't ask a single question about the mortgage crisis. (As one Cleveland resident noted, 'We've got the mortgage industry's toxic waste scattered all over this city, but Mr. Blue-Collar-Buffalo-and-Cleveland-Marshall-Guy Russert couldn't be bothered with a question about it.') He didn't ask a single question about executive power, the Constitution, torture, wiretapping, or other civil-liberties concerns. But that shouldn't come as a surprise; of all the questions he has asked while moderating presidential debates during this campaign, only one has dealt with any of those topics. He has, however, asked Dennis Kucinich what he felt compelled to insist was a 'serious question' -- whether Kucinich has seen a UFO. And he has asked about John Edwards' expensive haircut." Yes, the death of Russert is a tragedy for his family and friends, but there are many other ongoing tragedies of many less fortunate victims of all these issues that also deserve attention.
May he rest in peace.
Everywatcher:
"Represents North San Diego County, La Jolla, Del Mar, etc. Lots of BIG money and very conservative (and organized) people, would vote Issa in every time. But face it, he’s no threat to anyone, to far right to get moderate Reps to agree with him on the time of Day. And just give him a microphone and he’ll make a fool of himself every time. Face it, there are extremely liberal representatives who the moderates can’t handle either. Extreme is extreme on either side. One just has bit more class regarding the departed."
Issa represents the CA 49th district, of which I, unfortunately, am a constituent.
His district is not the rich bastards that infest Del Mar, but the other side of the republican base up in the more rural north county of San Diego. The know nothing, minuteman loving, automatons who love (live) to hate. And there's a LOT of them. These days they silently scratch their heads over $4.60 regular. Tsk, tsk. Who to blame? But the weather's nice.
F****** Bush! Plunges us deep into an assinine shallow planned POS war, driving oil through the roof.
Then the azz munch dares to suggest we need to drill here in the US and lambasts the democrats for their position of finding alternative fuels and not wanting to drill in the US as if that was the problem all along.
The worthless SOB takes ZERO responsibility for putting us into the mess, and forces us into a position of now probably having to drill here at home because of his G** Damn shop short sighted mother $#!@^&G position on biofuels which COULD have been started 8 F%^&*($% years ago.
I hope his dog mistakes his balls for a chew toy
Who in the hell votes for these fucking scumbags?
I don't think there is a sliver of decency in the entire republican party anymore. They are truly abominable monsters and evil SOB's!
BobD @ 20
Sorry. Just an attempt at sarcasm. Not a republican lurker. I guess it didn't come through as sarcasm.
What troglodyte district does he represent and why hasn’t this speciment been “recalled”?
In response to No.57, Tim Russert was no doubt a republican political machine. In addition, he was the high priest of the politicians bringing their weaknesses to the table and forcing them to confess.
I have constantly written that Tim was pandering to the republicans and if he did not his wife who is a republican would be chewing him out...
I hope MSNBC will be strong and carry on the torch of Meet the Press. We have lost a giant and a rare specie.
Right wing media claim 41 million acres are under current lease and use and are producing millions of barrels of oil and natural gas a day. Commentators in the progressive media say 75% of the oil companys' 44 million acres are not being used. How in the hell is an ordinary layman with no expertise in the oil business supposed to know who is telling the truth?
We cannot reclaim, let alone advance the cause of representative democracy until we understand how creatures like this rise like pond scum to positions of power and how we can stop or at least control them.
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