From 2011 to 2015, former Oversight Committee chairman and serial chicken fucker Darrell Issa (R-CA) devoted the entirety of his tenure to investigating one fake scandal after another from Solyndra to Fast and Furious and Benghazi.
Issa never uncovered evidence of criminal activity or a smoking gun and, in that respect, you could say he has nothing to show for those four years of valuable time he pissed away chasing ghosts, but Issa has a different take.
Issa boasted to Boston Herald Radio that his investigations tarnished the image of Hillary Clinton.
“You know, people often ask Trey Gowdy and myself, what did our investigations do?” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) told Boston Herald Radio on Friday morning. Gowdy currently chairs the House Select Committee on Benghazi, while Issa conducted his own investigation in 2012 when he served as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
“Well what they did is that they opened up an opportunity for the American people to sort of smell what’s in the garbage can,” Issa said. “And I think that’s the reason that a devout socialist who wants to nationalize almost everything in America is close to and probably will beat Hillary here in New Hampshire. It’s not because they like Republicans. It’s because they don’t trust Hillary.”
I disagree with Issa's assertion that "Benghazi!" has boosted Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary, but Issa clearly believes he built that.
We've almost universally referred to Darrell Issa's investigations as "witch hunts" not just because they were launched without a clear target or goal. The lack of a clear target in and of itself was the point of his grand inquisitions which were sometimes referred to as "fact-finding" missions.
There was never going to be a perp walk at the end of it and congressional Republicans know enough about process and the law to know there wouldn't be. They launched these investigations simply because they had the power to do so and because they have absolutely no ethical standards to speak of. For them, conducting partisan, politically-motivated witch hunts on the taxpayer dime is just as easy as breathing.
I've long said congressional Republicans involved in these investigations should be referred to the Ethics Committee, but Republicans control that committee. They aren't going to investigate themselves.
It was not too long ago when House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R) was assailed and disowned by his own party for saying what Issa just said.