Courtesy of Mediaite:
During a hearing of the House Oversight Committee into allegations that the Internal Revenue Service scrutinized conservative groups’ tax-exempt status filings unduly, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) exploded at Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). Cummings charged that the way in which the proceedings were being conducted were “Un-American.” In apparent protest, Issa then walked out of the committee hearing.
While making a statement before the committee, Issa stood up and asked Cummings to yield.
“If you will sit down and allow me to ask a question,” Cummings insisted. “I am a member of a Congress of the United States of America.”
“I am tired of this,” he continued. “You cannot just have a one-sided investigation. There is absolutely something wrong with that, and it is absolutely un-American.”
“We had a hearing. It was adjourned,” Issa replied. “I gave you an opportunity to ask your questions. You had no questions.”
“I do have questions,” Elijah replied. “Chairman, what are you hiding?”
At this stage, Issa walked out of the hearing
"He's taking the fifth Elijah." I LOVED that!
I had the opportunity to see a longer clip from MSNBC this morning, and what Mediaite and this shorter clip leave out is that Issa adjourned the hearing right as Rep. Cummings started to make his statement, and then cut his mic.
I mean no wonder Cummings was pissed, but what angered him just as much was the fact that this whole hearing was a waste of time as the attorney for Lois Lerner stated that she would not be testifying today.
Update: Now Issa is claiming that Cummings slandered him:
“He was talking into a mic in an adjourned meeting,” Issa said. “The fact is Mr. Cummings came to make a point of his objections to the process we have been going through. He was actually slandering me at the moment that the mics did go off by claiming that this had not been a real investigation.”
Ahh, somebody got hims feelings hurted.
Update 2: Here is the longer version of Issa's tantrum courtesy of MSNBC.
(By the way I just noticed that Lois Lerner sat and listened to Elijah Cummings entire statement about the Republican IRS witch hunt even though Issa had dismissed her. For some reason that really tickled me.)
The only thing I see in this which makes me hopeful is that MAYBE someone (Like Cummings?) will file a formal complaint and follow through with it. We already know issa is a asshole (word play intended) so the fact he did something like this is not surprising.
ReplyDeleteAm I going to hold my breath while this cycles through? HELL NO! Not as long as the idiots in control of the House are as ignorant and stupid as Issa.
I'm not exactly sure what Issa is, but he's not a Democrat. And he's not exactly behaving like an American either. How about Darrell Issa is a traitorous instigator? Yeah, that works for me.
ReplyDeleteIssa is on drugs.
ReplyDeleteSaw an 8 minute clip and it was awful the way Issa treated Congressman Cummings. Unbelievable.
ReplyDeleteFox will spin this their way. But the evidence is in that video. The 'hate' is strong in that one, Issa.
Gryphen, typo alert in your first sentence. Darrell Issa is definitely NOT a Democrat!
ReplyDeleteThe Democrats are the minority party in the House.
DeleteGryphen, typo alert in your first sentence.
DeleteThe first sentence in Gryphen's article is a verbatim copy of the first sentence of Noah Rothman's Mediaite article. You can confirm this by following the link immediately below the video. The likely reason there's no "(sic)" in non-italic text following Rothman's error at this time is that Gryphen expects his regular readers to be well aware of Issa's party affiliation.
Issa is the original 'boy who cried wolf'. Nobody should listen to this liar ever again.
ReplyDeleteHow dare that pig cut the mic just because he didn't like to hear the truth.
Dimebag Darrel Issa, Official Spirochete of the US House of Representatives.
ReplyDeleteAnd now, for something completely different.
SCIENCE!!
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/04/science/space/a-successor-to-sagan-reboots-cosmos.html
Issa is a proven ass and liar, with a very checkered past. He should be kicked out of Congress and/or dealt bodily harm! I'd be the first in line to give him a solid slam!
ReplyDeleteGryphen, was the longer MSNBC video you watched this one?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/issa-cummings-clash-at-irs-hearing-183116355553?cid=sm_twitter_video
I'd seen a MSNBC video earlier this morning regarding the Issa/Cummings interchange, but not one this complete post-gavel. THIS is the one folks ought to be linked to!
No slander. Issa is full of bullpucky, as usual.
"Ahh, somebody got hims feelings hurted."
ReplyDeleteTYPO!!!!! Didnt you forget an apostrophe, Mister Blister?
Any edumacated adult or conservative homeschooled student knows it should be "Ahh, somebody got him's feelings hurted."
There, I fixed it....
After Getting Busted In a Huge Lie Fox News Is Shocked that Lois Lerner Won’t Testify
ReplyDelete...“Fox News plastered the story everywhere. This was the Republicans big break. They were going to revive the widely debunked IRS scandal. Lerner’s testimony was going to give the Republicans the smoking gun that they thought they could use to impeach President Obama. Fox News is scrambling to adjust the content of their story, but in typical Fox fashion, they haven’t changed the headline.”
So it looks like Darrell Issa misled the public again, and Fox News helped him do it. Now they are assisting in creating the narrative that she suddenly ducked out of testifying, when in fact, Issa knew all along that she wouldn’t be testifying.
So, someone here lied knowingly to the public. Any guesses? The potential culprits are: Darrell Issa, who has already been busted many times lying to the public in order to service his agenda of turning the IRS doing their job into a scandal. Fox News, who sued for the right to lie and call it news, so yeah. Anything goes over there. And Lois Lerner’s attorney, who does not have a record of being a serial liar with an agenda.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/03/05/fox-news-puts-big-show-shocked-lois-lerner-testify.html
...Rep. Cummings’ statement accurately described what is visible in the video above. Some media outlets have reported this as an argument between Issa and Cummings. There was no argument. Cummings tried to speak. Issa cut off his mic. Issa turned the Democrats mic back on, adjourned the hearing, and quickly ran out of the room.
Like a cockroach running from the light, Issa couldn’t wait to escape the hearing room after it became clear that he lied to the world on Fox News Sunday. Lois Lerner never had any intention of testifying today. That didn’t stop Issa from inventing some breaking news that he passed on to Fox News that Lerner would be testifying.
Issa should have been humiliated, but he was outraged that Lerner would not play a part in his attempt to revive the widely debunked IRS scandal. Fox News is expressing shock that Lerner didn’t testify, but they have known since Sunday that she wasn’t going to play a role in Issa’s latest show trial abuse of power.
Rep. Cummings was correct. That was no way to run a hearing; however it did lay bare the partisan witch hunt that Darrell Issa is carrying out against President Obama. What we saw today was not democracy. It was a pathetic attempt to grandstand in order to revive a scandal that doesn’t exist.
The only person in that room who deserves to be investigated it is Rep. Darrell Issa.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/03/05/darrell-issa-turns-democrats-mic-flees-room-lois-lerner-hearing.html
Adrienne Ross
ReplyDeleteTired of reading negative comments about Michelle Obama's physical appearance or distortions of her name. If you can't argue the issues, and have to resort to your focus on appearance--which is highly subjective, by the way--you need to get out of the way because you're not helping. Furthermore, if you get upset when this kind of superficial attack is waged against Gov. Palin and other conservative women, yet you are okay with it being done to Michelle, you're a hypocrite. Yep, I said it--because character is more important to me than political parties. Please don't bother commenting about why people make these kinds of childish comments; there's no excuse.
Excuuuuuse me.
DeleteEx-half-term-quitter-governor-in-name-only (thanks, Toad) bases her whole schtick on her looks. Therefore, they are fair game for comments.
Moosie-momma should never even be mentioned in the same breath as our lovely First Lady Michelle Obama. Apples and oranges.
Well,old Adrienne is in trouble now. I wondered if she would ever look around at the pig sty she was wallowing in.
DeleteMaybe Adrienne is finally realizing that being the token minority in that cesspool isn't all it's cracked up to be.
DeleteYep Adrienne, it gets tiring listening to racist taunts against a woman who has done nothing but good for this country. Now do you get who you have thrown your lot in with?
DeleteOh My! Someone's as angry as a lot of comments on brancy's blog. Seems Bristol has taken up a new hobby and is reading the bible a LOT, then saying things like how she LOVES (in a platonic, Jesusy way, that Keaton Bitch from "The Middle".
DeleteGo Adrienne!
Jeopardy question for the day.
Who once took an egg projectile meant for Sarah Palin?
I'll take "Who the heck is Adrienne Ross" for five hundred, Alex.
As a black female in America, I have only one thing to say to Adrienne Ross--if you wallow with pigs, Honey, you'll get mud and sh*t over yourself, too. You deserve to be uncomfortable because you gave up your humanity and sense of self to hang with a group of individuals who have as much of a problem with you as they have with FL Michelle Obama. It's your own self-created problem.
Deletelol, how exactly do you slander an ethically challenged crook? issa is a whiny little bitch. Elijah Cummings is 100 times the man darrell is
ReplyDeleteHistory books will have a split photo of Issa and Joe McCarthy, indicating the two biggest frauds congress ever produced.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it about time for Issa to enjoy a good old-fashioned "Blanket Party"?
ReplyDeleteJesus H. Christ.
ReplyDeleteIf there is one thing that the GOP re-branding effort cannot afford, it's the image of some fucking angry white pencil neck like Issa convening a kangaroo court to condemn an African-American President, only to walk out like some sanctamonious, self-satisfied prick on an senior African-American representative.
Brilliant fucking strategy. You know, I've said it once and I will say it again: The GOTP possesses an unending supply of feet to shoot itself in.
‘Equal time’ is 7 minutes for Darrell Issa, only 1 minute for Democrats
ReplyDeleteFox News host Martha MacCallum on Wednesday said that the network was trying to give Democrats and Republicans “equal time” when it aired 7 minutes of Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-CA) press conference, but cut Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) off after only 1 minute.
At the conclusion of House Oversight Committee hearing on the Internal Revenue Service’s improper targeting of groups that were applying for tax-exempt status, Chairman Issa cut the microphones and walked out of the hearing, enraging Cummings, who was still trying to ask questions.
While Cummings continued to shout into the dead microphones, Fox News cut away to Issa’s press conference outside the hearing room.
For 7 minutes, the chairman complained about former IRS official Lois Lerner’s decision to invoke her Fifth Amendment rights, Cummings’ reaction to abrupt adjournment, and he vowed that the investigation would continue.
And then it was Cummings’ turn to speak to the press.
“We’re up against a break here, but let’s listen to some of it,” host Martha MacCallum said.
But 40 seconds later, Cummings had his microphone cut again, this time by Fox News.
“We’re trying to give equal time to both of these gentlemen here,” MacCallum explained before going to commercial.
Watch the video below from Fox News, broadcast March 5, 2014.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/05/fox-news-host-equal-time-is-7-minutes-for-darrell-issa-only-1-minute-for-democrats/
Gryphen
ReplyDeleteLast night Texas primary - Palin backed the shoplifter Pierson LOST.
Rep. Pete Sessions defeats tea party challenger Katrina Pierson
ReplyDeletehttp://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2014/03/rep-pete-sessions-and-tea-partier-katrina-pierson-face-off-in-32nd-district.html/
Rep Cummings has been extraordinarily patient with this farce of an investigation, and has been insulted and treated like a child by Issa far too many times. He's been in Congress for nearly 20 years and has earned the respect of all his fellow members, except, of course, Issa.
ReplyDeleteIssa, on the other hand, has been proven to lie repeatedly, and should have been relieved of his position on that committee when it was revealed that he steered the investigators to ONLY pursue the perceived slights against right wing groups and ignore those against progressive groups.
Issa has NO credibility and is an embarrassment to Congress and our government.
Plus A thousand. My sentiments exactly, Senator Cummings is a good man and public servant, no ego driven maniacal "Cause I have the hammer and I can" partisan shill like Issa.
DeleteWhy don't somebody start impeachment hearing on issa? sheesh enough already, everything he's done has blown up in his face, something's got to be done about him, he's wasting tax payers money with these fake witch hunts
ReplyDeleteThis investigation has cost 14 million dollars and thousands of hours. Why would Issa NOT want to get to the bottom of this? Why suppress, in one of the most ugly disrespectful ways I've ever seen in congress, the ranking member who wanted to make a statement?
ReplyDeleteI hope Cummings goes after him with all the power he has. We the people are paying for this circus, all these circuses that have been stepped up on since the President came to office.
The one thing I don't understand is the term Cummins used in regard to Lerner's lawyer..."Proper". It sounded like Cummins said all the questions would be answered if her lawyer could have stated this proper thing. Maybe someone could shed some light. There has been more than one instance where Issa has been accused of leaking classified info to Fox which is clearly against the interest of any hearing. Not only that, it is his consistent cherry picking that has allowed these hearings to continue....the left had been targeted the same way as the tea party groups and what was found that no tea party groups were denied, only progressive ones. Of course Issa is not interested in these facts and you could hear today again.....talking about only tea party groups. Let us not forget, the ultimate purpose of all his bullshit is his fundraising...oh yes, it has been reported quite extensively the millions raised during all these hearings. Also....Issa is the richest man in government, congress & senate. How did he get that wealthy? He has a rich history in criminal activity that he managed to slime away from with clever lawyers. Calling this kettle black?
ReplyDeleteI think he meant "Profer", which is usually a q and a away from the jury where the judge can see where the questioning is going and if there are any legal problems so they don't have to retry the case.
DeleteBut I don't see the point when she plead the fifth twice already, and anyone with any sense can see what Issa is trying to do.
But I don't see the point when she plead the fifth twice already…
DeleteThat's a context in which this often occurs, negotiating for immunity. See my previous comment.
Someone posted this on IM recently www.wickershamsconscience.wordpress.com
ReplyDeleteHypocrisy, Witch Hunts and wasteful wastrels, Must Read, it all makes sense.