‘Issa Was Already Toast’
Republican U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa has just announced he will not seek re-election and retire from Congress at the end of his term. Issa spent the Obama years targeting the Democratic president but lost his chairmanship of the powerful House Oversight Committee after his supposed bombshell investigations rarely if ever proved wrongdoing by the Obama administration.
“Issa used his position atop the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to relentlessly poke at President Obama over Benghazi, the Internal Revenue Service, the ‘Fast and Furious’ failed gun sting, and any number of topics that made for high theater and cable cameos,” The LA Times reported in 2015. “But Issa’s investigations often failed to show direct culpability on the part of the White House or Obama, whom he once called ‘one of the most corrupt presidents in modern times.'”
On Twitter, many rejoiced over the news Issa will be gone – and the possibility the seat, despite being in conservative Orange County, could go to a Democrat.
This, from the Managing Editor of the highly-regarded Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball of the UVA Center for Politics:
Nate Silver suggests Issa would have lost:
And these:
Others weighed in with glee, mockery:
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Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license
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