Back in early 2011, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) issued his first subpoena for information about members of Congress who received sweetheart mortgage deals under the Countrywide VIP program called “Friends of Angelo.” By doing so he abandoned the historical practice of referring matters involving members of Congress directly to the House Ethics Committee, an approach he previously criticized, and instead made it clear he wanted his committee to probe the members’ files.
“The American people have a right to know the totality of who participated in the Countrywide’s VIP program and what they did in return for access to it,” Issa said. The role of the Oversight Committee, Issa said, was “to get all of the facts so that the American people can judge for themselves who should be held responsible and accountable.”
Fast forward to the 16th of last month, when Issa wrote a letter to the House Ethics Committee giving them information on “possible wrongdoing” without publicly disclosing the names of four additional members of Congress who received the preferential loans.
What changed?
Oversight Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD) suggested in a letter he wrote to Issa on Tuesday that it was the political affiliation of the members.
“Although two previous Chairmen of the Oversight Committee followed the longstanding practice of referring matters involving Members of Congress directly to the Ethics Committee, you abandoned this practice last February when you issued a unilateral subpoena — your first as Chairman — demanding to see these Member files yourself,” Cummings wrote. “The documents produced in response to your subpoena reveal four previously undisclosed instances in which Members of Congress received Countrywide VIP loans. All four intances involve Republican Members, including three current Republican House Members and one former Republican House Member.”
Reps. Buck McKeon (R), Elton Gallegly (R) and Pete Sessions (R) received the previously undisclosed loans, representatives have acknowledged to various publications, while the remaining individual is unknown. The website of the National Republican Congressional Committee, headed by Sessions, seemed to have been scrubbed of previous references to Countrywide on Tuesday evening.
Issa’s office said the issues raised by Cummings would not distract the Oversight Committee from its ongoing probe.
“The Oversight Committee continues to press forward with its now more than three-year long probe of the Countrywide VIP program,” Issa spokesman Frederick R. Hill said in a statement to TPM. “Even as the investigation yields new developments, numerous questions about the VIP program remain unanswered. Critics of the investigation have not and will not deter Chairman Issa’s commitment to exposing what occurred.”
Ryan J. Reilly
Ryan J. Reilly is a D.C.-based reporter for TPM. Prior to joining TPM, he worked for a news website covering the Justice Department and was a researcher for Bloomberg News. His email address is ryan(at)talkingpointsmemo.com.
How'd Issa get elected, anyway?
The whole purpose of Issa taking the investigation over was to keep it out of the house ethics hands. He knew they were republicans.
We in California (who didn't vote for Issa) have known for years that he should be serving time in prison rather than serving time in the House.
We demand your people be held responsible.
Oh, it's my people.
Never mind.
As always, these people do not believe the rules are meant for them....they forgive their own criminals and unethical elite, many times exalting them to higher positions of power, like they did with Rick Scott. Normally anyone who is found guilty of stealing BILLIONS in Medicare is listed "a criminal", unless you are friends of Jeb and Dubya, then they forget that pesky label "felon" and put you up for Governor!
"Critics of the investigation have not and will not deter Chairman Issa’s commitment to exposing what occurred.” ... What spokesman said
And what he left out .... "On the other hand, having as friends and political allies a number of collaborators in wrongdoing WILL deter him."
Well, I guess it takes an old broad (moi!) to just blurt out the truth: Mr. Issa is a classic example of a Short Man - in every sense of the word.
Issa is acting his part on the Colbert Report with this, correct? CORRECT?!?!
Well he should be,,,,,,
Issa, a rabid partisan? - who'd a thunk?
He appears very likeable and almost reasonable on TV but his record shows him to be blinded by ideology and totally in the tank when it comes to exposing Republican wrongdoing.
Issa is one of the biggest crooks in Washington. Hmmm - I can't add anything to that.
Can someone remind me - was Issa actually ever convicted of car theft? Was he charged several times but not convicted? Off-topic, but I have such a hard time keeping up with GOP criminal activity.
try this to help:
REPUBLICAN OFFENDERS - SEXUAL HARASSMENT PREDATOR ...
www.republicanoffenders.com/ - Similarto REPUBLICAN OFFENDERS - SEXUAL HARASSMENT PREDATOR ...
A list of Republican felons and their indicted brethren. Republican offender news and the latest Republican criminals. Money Laundering, Fraud, Serial Killers, ...
Wow. That's an incredible link.
1972gd
Well you won't find the answer on Wikipedia today...
Let's stand against SOPA/PIPA. Call your representative and senators. TODAY!
Run with this and show up his politically motivated probes for what they are.
No surprise here. How do you think he got the position he's in?
I live in Issa's district and I plan to vote for Dick Eiden!
My money's on Issa being #4...
3-year probe? You can fly to Mars in that amount of time. These guys aren't exactly in a hurry to finish what they start, are they? I guess they only way they can be powerful and feared is to drag out, McCarthy-style, -quote- investigations - unquote-.
Another partisan Republican crook....I think those involved should be called before the ethics committee..both parties...and Isaa too...
So long as I live I will never forget that while working as an auto mechanic the company I worked for began instaling alarms in cars using Issa's product line.
What was required to instal these was that we were instructed to CUT the wiring in such a way as to add his product.
What that did was make vehicles prone to problems because what was really needed was connecteors rather than splices that could shut the car off in an unsafe uncontrolled manner in the event of the splices becoming loose over time.
There came a day after a very limited number of these instals that I refused to do the job and I quit the job over it.
I always felt then as I do now, that anyone who would make a product that had a potential to cause such danger to others by not creating a clearly safer product for the sake of profit was an unethical person.
pitbullstew Not to mention that there's great suspicion that Rep. Darrell Issa's past includes arrests for weapons charges and auto theft, suspicions of arson, and accusations of intimidation with a gun. He's just another Dirty Bastard. See http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/issa-was-ac...
This is a surprise, why?
Darsan54 It's as stunning and shocking as the revelation that Paul Lynde was gay.
Cummings is right. Issa's initial move to keep the Ethics Committee out of the investigation was the first stage of a coverup operation. First the Honorable Members got a sweetheart loan, and then they got a sweetheart investigation.
How sweet it is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Eo3btT7UPA
Little somethin' somethin' "tea"
tao But It's OK If You're a Republican ...
Well, naturally. If Issa had any real interest in investigating corruption, he'd need to look at himself.
Red XIV Issa is one sleazy character.
HandyRed XIV Issa reminds me of Jack Abramoff.
They didn't have trouble messing their diapers when Dodd was found to have had a "sweetheart" loan. Why aren't the going after Pete Sessions. They forced Dodd to resign with all the crap they raised about it. Has anybody heard just ONE of the republicans say anything about Sessions.
IOKIYAR.
If it was a list of democrats then Issa would be all up in it.
"The website of the National Republican Congressional Committee, headed by Sessions, seemed to have been scrubbed of previous references to Countrywide on Tuesday evening."
Transparency in government. Right.
pshipkey Into the black hole of 1984 and Newspeak. The one point that I always thought unbelievable when I read 1984 back in the late 60's was how could that happen when they would have to go back and get rid of all the previous references in history. We now see with the demise of "paper" news sources, web sites will simply be scrubbed of all references and simply posted anew. When the government gets complete control of the internet through SOPA we will no longer have access to cached previous versions. Orwell was so brilliant.
pj70pshipkey #6 on the list of the fascist republican plans to take over this country one bill at a time.
6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
They already have Fox newspeak and CNN as their media spokespeople
Any chance the people who elected these scum will ever hear of this? Given the mainstream american media I doubt it.
ErnestPayne That is the problem with everything going on in the House and Senate now. With the republicans not even bringing good jobs bills to the floor in the House and when they do get a bill in the Senate with the republicans blocking it, the public is led to believe that the Democrats are as responsible as the republicans. I think it is time the Occupy movement occupies the news media and takes at least Fox down.
ErnestPayne These scum are protected by their scum "new" media, and their scum supporters ONLY react to items inthe scum media. It's a perfect circle of scumbags.
Issa said of the Bank of America documents that were stolen from Wikileaks, "Nobody will ever know." If that is not incriminating, I don't know what is. The big crook has to go.
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