The Inquisitor

The man that has the task of inquisitor attempting to link alleged misdees to the White House should, instead, be subjected to an inquisitor himself.


Ari Melber, co-host of “The Cycle”, joined Martin Bashir on his show Thursday evening to denounce Darrell
Issa’s unprecedented behavior and charges toward Obama and Eric Holder. Ari pointed out that Issa’s
unf ounded accusations have caused several journalists to begin digging into his checkered past. It’s not pretty.
MARTIN BASHIR: Many of us don’t know much about him. Darrell Issa. He’s worth $745 million. He made that
f ortune largely by running a car alarm company which is f unny because he was once indicted to stealing a car
as well as one other arrest f or carrying a concealed weapon, all of which I guess makes him the paragon of
virtue and the man who can grandstand and treat with ranked discourtesy the attorney general, is that right?
ARI MELBER: Congressman Issa has been throwing out a lot of charges but there is f inally some scrutiny of
his background, both bef ore serving in Congress and running the oversight committee. Ryan Lizza and “The
New Yorker” as we discussed went in and looked at his record, looked at the indictment on the stolen car, an
arrest f or concealed weapons. Looked at Congressman Issa’s def ense, of ten saying his brother who’s had
trouble with the law was the target of these investigations. Also a lot of serious allegations about arson in a
f actory he owned although he says it was an accidental f ire. Even bef ore coming –
MARTIN BASHIR: Just on that, sorry, bef ore we move of f , that warehouse and that f ire seemed to coincide
with him just bef ore the f ire raising his insurance policy f rom $100,000 to $400,000.
ARI MELBER: That’s right. He took out a signif icant increase in the insurance and there was also an accident
report that “The New Yorker” discovered that talked about the f act that the nature of the f ire didn’t match up
with the kind of — kind of accidental arson — nonarson, I should say, accidental f ire that could have occurred.
On the oversight committee, I’m so glad you showed some of those clips just now because people have to
understand a lot of those exchanges including Congressman Issa telling Eric holder you’re not a good witness,
answer the question, kind of berating that is unusual treatment f or our top law enf orcement of f icer occurred a
year ago in the f ast and f urious investigation.
And that led to the f irst contempt citation ever of a sitting attorney general. So Martin, when people say, oh,
there’s always skirmishes, both sides do it, no. As a matter of historical precedent, this is the f irst time we’ve
had a chair, Congressman Issa, take the oversight committee and hold an Attorney General in criminal contempt
f or what I wrote at the time were f limsy charges.
End transcript
Ari Melber is an attorney, so when he says the charges against Holder were “f limsy”, it means a bit more than a
convicted criminal calling AG Eric Holder a “bad witness”.
The New Yorker article ref erenced is f rom 2011, but it’s coming to the f oref ront now as journalists and pundits
search Issa’s name f or clues as to who he is. Described as a “working class high school drop out”, Issa makes
f or a colorf ul character with various criminal charges peppered through his lif e. “Issa, it turned out, had, among
other things, been indicted f or stealing a car, arrested f or carrying a concealed weapon, and accused by f ormer
associates of burning down a building.”
Naturally, this is the man the Republicans vested with total power to investigate the Obama administration f or
any reason at any time. You don’t appoint someone with actual ethics to do your dirty work, because, well, that
wouldn’t work. “Now that he had been given the power to subpoena, investigate, and harass the Obama
Administration, Issa was being described as a f uture leader of his party—and the man most likely to weaken
the President bef ore the 2012 election…”
What’s Issa’s word worth? Not much, except as a warning that what you’re hearing may likely be inaccurate. For
example, Issa claims he was always given “highest marks” by the Army and had provided “security” to then
President Nixon, but a reporter dug into his past and f ound that Nixon had not even attended the events Issa’
claimed to have provided security f or, and Issa was known as a car thief in the army (separate incident f rom his
later more well known arrests f or car thef t).
Furthermore, “In May of 1998, Lance Williams, of the San Francisco Examiner, reported that Issa had not
always received the “highest possible” ratings in the Army. In f act, at one point he “received unsatisf actory
conduct and ef f iciency ratings and was transf erred to a supply depot.” Williams also discovered that Issa didn’t
provide security f or Nixon at the 1971 World Series, because Nixon didn’t attend any of the games.”
Issa was soon af ter arrested f or stealing a red Maserati, but the judge dropped those charges around the time
that Issa was arrested in a separate incident f or having a .25 Colt and “44 rounds of ammo and a tear gas gun
and two rounds of ammo f or it.” Just the kind of guy you want leading your party, especially when your party
stands f or vigilante justice via the NRA. Issa pleaded that case down to a lesser charge.
Just when things started to look up f or Issa in the Army, he was arrested yet again f or car thef t, but this time
he was also indicted f or grand thef t. The prosecution ended up dropping that case af ter smoke and mirrors
coupled denial and some f ancy Issa f ootwork. That didn’t stop Issa f rom committing hit and run soon af ter
evading prosecution.
Af ter that narrow escape f rom the law, Issa was suspected by of f icials of arson and accused of f iring an
employee by giving him a box with a gun in it. While investigating the arson charges, authorities realized that
they could not trace the original capital Issa used to start his business. Shady dealings, but Issa once again
managed to escape the law, but not their suspicion. All of this adds up to a great criminal resume f or a
henchman, and that is what Issa is f or the GOP.
Darrell Issa may discover that he doesn’t like the sort of scrutiny his behavior is bringing upon himself . Af ter all,
while his charges against his “enemies” don’t hold water, his criminal past is largely a matter of public record,
rather than the f ictional hysteria of a bitter party that can’t win a national election any other way.
Darrell Issa’s Lies Create an Uncomfortable Scrutiny of His Criminal Background was written by Sarah
Jones f or PoliticusUSA.

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