Things just aren't going Darrell Issa's way

Darrell Issa, Republican Chair of the House Government Oversight Committee, is not having a good day.   Things aren't going his way.

First, they took Benghazi away from him;  and he was pinning his hopes on finding the scandal in the haystack on that one to bring down the Obama administration and scuttle Hillary Clinton's chances for being president.   Instead, the House voted to have a select committee take over and had to admonish Issa not to interfere.   Boy, was he mad about that.

But then he still had the IRS flap that seemed to hold some promise for scandal.   Well, it did to Issa;  not to most folks.  IRS official Lois Lerner took the 5th and refused to testify for Issa's sadistic pleasusre.  So Issa got congress to charge her with contempt.   The Justice Dept. balked at actually bringing a case against her in court . . .  because, well, there was no case really.

Issa insisted the law was clear, that DoJ was obligated to bring a case against Lerner, if congress charged her with contempt.   A Justice official disagreed in open hearing, saying that DoJ does have discretion as to whether to bring a case, even when the Congress had voted on a contempt citation.

Issa began arguing about the meaning of "shall," insisting that the DoJ had to bring a case.   But then the ranking Democratic member of the committee, Elijah Cummings, calmly read to him the opinion from the Department of Justice Office of Legal Council that there was room for discretion in deciding whether to prosecute.    Issa still sputtered.



Then Cummings calmly informed him that the Office of Legal Council was considered the final word in interpreting how the DoJ operated -- and that this opinion was rendered by Ted Olsen when he held that position during the Reagen administration.

So it seems that an official ruling from the DoJ Office of Legal Council in the Reagen administration will protect Lois Lerner from being prosecuted for contempt of congress.

That must have been sweet justice for Elijah Cummings who has been treated so shabbily by Issa.    No question about it:    Issa is a bully and repeatedly abuses his power as chairman.   Good for old reliable Elijah who wielded the knife so deftly while maintaining his calm dignity.

Ralph