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Now that we're all being treated to the sight of Darrell Issa puffing up and bloviating about his work as chairman of the House Oversight Committee, this clip with Ari Melber and Martin Bashir is an excellent reminder of which fox currently chairs the henhouse. Ryan Lizza's 2011 profile of Issa served as the basis for today's discussion.

There is the car theft, for example. Oh, alleged car theft, I should say. After all, the man who made his fortune from a car alarm company was accused of auto theft at one point:

A member of Issa’s Army unit, Jay Bergey, told Williams that his most vivid recollection of the young Issa was that in December, 1971, Issa stole his car, a yellow Dodge Charger. “I confronted Issa,” Bergey said in 1998. “I got in his face and threatened to kill him, and magically my car reappeared the next day, abandoned on the turnpike.”

Ok, maybe that was a prank, but after that, there was this:

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Appearing yesterday on MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan Show, The Nation's Ari Melber reminded us how Republican obstructionism has crippled administration appointments -- and suggested what Obama and Harry Reid should do:

ARI MELBER: Most of you know Congress just left for vacation. Normally when Congress is on recess, the president can make recess appointments to advance nominees that have been obstructed, but it turns out Congress is not really on recess. Republicans are holding symbolic sessions during their entire vacation in order to prevent recess appointments. This is just the latest ploy in a long obstruction campaign by the GOP.

Since Obama came into office, Republicans have blocked an unprecedented number of nominees from ever getting a vote. Take judicial nominees. Republicans have blocked almost half of the nominees for judicial nominations, the worst obstruction rate in U.S. history. And the targets aren't random, either. GOP obstruction has hindered female and minority nominees the most.

Here's a disturbing statistic from the People for the American Way, and I'm quoting now: "Every district court nominee with unanimous opposition from the Senate Judiciary committee Republicans has been a woman or a person of color." You know, people forget that Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan was first nominated to an appeals court back in the day by President Clinton, but Republicans wouldn't allow her a vote on that nomination. Then, when President Obama nominated her to be the third woman to ever serve on our high court, the same Republicans complained she didn't have the experience as a judge -- even though they were the ones who kept her off the bench.

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I'm still recovering from my trip and Nicole is picking up the slack today so far, but I wanted to throw my two cents in if I may. There's a lot of takes going around about who is trying to take credit for our stunning defeat of the GOP on Tuesday. I want to start out by saying that Ned Lamont's campaign was one that took a shot at an entrenched Bush/War loving Democrat and said--we're not gonna take it any more. The outcome? Lamont forced Holy Joe to run as an Independent. That was truly amazing and started the anti-war drum beat going throughout the party which resulted in an incredible trouncing for Rove and Bush. Thank you Ned. The Bullshit Moose really has no clue.

I'm always labeled a Blue Dog Democrat on those funky online political tests that I take for fun. Do I remotely stand for anything like the Heath Shuler's of the wolrd? The Blue Dog Democrat meme is false as well.

We have some power now and the Democrats need to use it wisely and I think Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid understand that. Soto has some ideas. Agree or disagree.

This piece by The Nation's Ari Melber is utter nonsense. How could people say they understand the netroots and write something as patently false as this? It boggles the mind. David Sirota responds too. The bottom line is that we all played a part in it, plain and simple. We all stepped up and helped out and that is a "We" moment, not a " let's screw Howard Dean" one. Digby responds.

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