ELIJAH CUMMINGS: Are you going to ever learn to cut out the politics in the investigations on our committee?
DARRELL ISSA: Elij...
ELIJAH CUMMINGS: Are you going to learn sir?!
DARRELL ISSA: Elijah, I run this committee, not you.
Somethings Darrell Issa never seems to learn is how to moderate things as Congressman and so no matter what the odds are against him (unless the Tea Party threatens to withhold support), he'll continue his "investigations in the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee however which way he pleases.
Unfortunately, as usual, Issa continues to rile up people, including Ranking Member Elijah Cummings. No exception in this case with regards to the recent subpoena made for White House Chief Technology Office Todd Park to appear over the issues of the Obamacare website:
http://thehill.com/...
The ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee on Monday demanded that Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) withdraw a “misguided” subpoena of an official who is working to fix the federal ObamaCare website.
In a blistering letter, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) accused Issa of hurling “unfounded accusations” against Todd Park, the administration’s chief technology officer (CTO).
“The evidence before our Committee demonstrates that Mr. Park is an honest and exemplary public servant, and your unsubstantiated public attacks against his integrity are a deficient basis on which to justify a subpoena against him,” Cummings wrote with Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.).
Cummings said Issa’s subpoena was “diverting Mr. Park’s energies” from his work and could “seriously impair” the race to repair HealthCare.gov.
“Rather than denigrate Mr. Park’s reputation and impede his time-sensitive work, we request that the Committee accept his reasonable offer to testify before the Committee in December,” Cummings wrote.
In addition, colleagues of Todd Park are defending him against Issa's witch hunt:
Three technology experts with ties to the White House are blasting House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) for forcing Obama's top technology expert to testify before Congress.
The group created a website, called "Let Todd Work," arguing that Issa is wasting the time of U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park and distracting him from trying to fix HealthCare.gov.
Issa's panel issued a subpoena on Friday to force Park to testify about problems with the ObamaCare website at a hearing on Wednesday.
"Now, instead of continuing to fix Healthcare.gov (a mess he did not make), Mr. Park has to spend his hours preparing for his testimony," the group wrote.
The site was created by Clay Johnson and Adam Becker, former Presidential Innovation fellows, and Michael Aleo, a former White House art director.
Visitors can sign an online petition to "stand with Todd" and call for Issa to withdraw the subpoena.
"No matter what side of the aisle you sit on, Todd is one of the good guys. Let him do his job," the tech experts wrote.
The website by Park's colleagues is here so go ahead and sign it to show support for him:
http://lettoddwork.org/
Here's Issa's original letter to Todd Park:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
In a letter to Park along with the subpoena, Issa said he found it unacceptable that Park had found time for a handful of press interviews but not for Issa's hearing.
"Millions of Americans have lost their health insurance and are rapidly approaching a point where they must begin to prepare for the possibility of having no health insurance on Jan. 1, 2014," Issa wrote. "They deserve your sworn testimony before their elected representatives about what went wrong -- not simply media outlets that White House officials have deemed an appropriate use of your time away from working on the website project."
So millions of Americans are rapidly approaching a point where they must begin to prepare the possibility of health insurance on Jan 1, 2014? All because of a website?
Note though that Issa's getting more worked up about the Affordable Healthcare Act and the website problems in recent weeks since the government shutdown was ended than in any point in the whole "repeal Obamacare" voting scheme he and other Republicans did just so they could get campaign contributions.
Just think about it: Why would someone who votes to repeal Obamacare more than 40 times (knowing it won't pass) get all of a sudden worked up about getting the Healthcare.gov website fixed? And how can Issa REALLY prove a lot of folks are losing their healthcare because of Obamacare?
Of course, knowing Issa these days and the fact that he continues to call White House Press Secretary Jay Carney a paid liar (even if the language isn't the same), he certainly can't calm himself down:
"Gretchen, Jay Carney is paid to say things that aren't so."
Darrell Issa's Democratic challenger is Dave Peiser and here are the necessary links:
For more information on Peiser and voter registration statistics numbers of CA-49, links are below:
Dave Peiser for Congress: http://www.peiserforcongress.com/
Donate:
ActBlue: https://secure.actblue.com/...
Nationbuilder: https://peiserforcongress.nationbuilder.com/...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/...
Twitter: https://twitter.com/...
Information: info@peiserforcongress.com
Here's the voter registration as of February 2013 by the actual CA-49 Congressional District, which combines parts of San Diego and Orange County. Note the number of Decline-to-State/Independents:
http://www.sos.ca.gov/...
Orange County:
Democrats: 22,239
Republicans: 44,833
Decline-to-State/Independent: 19,077
San Diego County:
Democrats: 84,282
Republicans: 107,221
Decline-to-State/Independent: 70,938
Total:
Democrats: 106,521
Republicans: 152,054
Decline-to-State/Independent: 90,015
Here's the recent polling per PPP showing Darrell Issa vulnerable thanks to the government shutdown:
http://s3.moveon.org/...
Disapproval: 49%
Approval: 43%
If you live in or near California's 49th Congressional District and want a reason to start voter registration drives or take part in them, note that San Diego County Democratic Party has a calendar that keeps track of all activity going on, whether local Democratic club meetings or voter registration drive events:
http://www.sddemocrats.org/...
Start firing up the base in CA-49!