Darrell Issa on the Hillary Email Scandal

Hillary's Hiding EMails Continues to Haunt Her Reputation for Honesty

Prior to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's (D-NY) formal campaign announcement, there were questions about her emails while at the State Department . It was revealed that Mrs. Clinton exclusively used a personal email (HDR22@clintonemail.com) stored on a private server during her tenure at Foggy Bottom.  Additionally, Mrs. Clinton only turned over her emails in late 2014 with paper copies of the work emails that she deemed relevant.

Of course, there are plenty of questionable things already associated with the email imbroglio. Only using a personal email account was highly irregular and probably insecure.  Mrs. Clinton's lame rationale about using only one device associated with an email was lanced when it was shown that Hillary used both an Ipad as well as her trusty Blackberry.  State Department policy requires immediate surrender of all work materials to an archivist, who then determines what is personal. It was odd that Hillary printed out emails for the State Department rather than the electronic originals (making it difficult to do computer searches).  Then there is the oddity of months longs gaps in emails including when  Mrs. Clinton traveled to Libya and was photographs of her using her Blackberry, there are no record of documents.  Hmm.


 Now it has been revealed that House Government Reform and Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA 49th) had sent a letter to the State Department on December 12, 2012 which specifically asked if the Secretary of State ever used a personal email account to conduct official business.  Uh oh.

Well, Mrs. Clinton resigned from the State Department February 1, 2013.  The State Department did not respond to the House Government Reform Committee until March 27, 2013 and their response merely was a copy of the policy that all State Department employees : “should make it clear that his or her personal email is not being used for official business.”.

While the Lamestream Media sought to create a frenzy for Hillary's Mystery Machine Listening Tour road trip to Iowa, Mrs. Clinton is slipping in the polls in key battleground states to Republican challengers.  Quinnipiac Poll Assistant Director Peter Brown attributes this drop to the perception that Hillary Clinton is a dishonest politician, which can be attributed to the continuing email embarrassment.

If convicted, an official who obstructs or destroys federal documents could be barred from office. It is almost inconceivable that an Obama Department of Justice (under Attorney General Eric Holder or the stalled nominee Loretta Lynch) would ever prosecute or seek to convict such a high profile progressive politician.  But there are no such strictures in the court of public opinion.  Hillary for America intends to raise $2.5 billion for their campaign.  But she who raises the most cash does not always win (sic). In 1980, Governor John Connally (D R-TX) was considered a great orator and had a distinct fundraising advantage.  In the end, Connally spent $11 million and only garnered one delegate. How embarrassing.  Actually, not as embarrassing as Hillary's continuing email embarrassments.

h/t: Hot Air
      John Cole 

Eleanor Holmes Norton on History

During a House Oversight Committee hearing chaired by Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA 49th) on the Obama Administration's response to the Benghazi bungle, Democrats deigned to deflect. Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Calamity's (sic) non-voting Congressional Delegate, reverted to progressive's favorite bete noir and blamed Bush.  

Delegate Norton noted that US involvement in places like Libya were exacerbated because of Bush.  To underscore Norton's negative notions, she hyperbolized that the Iraq War was the worst war of the 20th Century.  Granted, she wanted to blame Bush but the Iraq War began in March 2003, which was squarely in the 21st Century.

Perhaps Ms. Norton was aiming to crown President George W. Bush's father President George H.W. Bush, who conducted the Persian Gulf War in 1991.  Of course, that would mean that Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm was more catastrophic than World War II.

Aside from being numerically challenged, Ms. Norton's statement would have been a challenge to diagram.  But to be charitable, Delegate Norton may have made a rhetorical faux pas.  

But Hot Air contemplates what actually has been the worst war of the 21st Century. By casualties alone, it was Darfur (which may have cost 300,000 their lives).  In the Iraq War, the Cost of War project estimates that there were 189,000 casualties (including 134,000 civilians) between 2003 and 2013.

Pleading the Fifth to the IRS?

IRS Exempt Division head, Lois Lerner

Lois Lerner, the head of the IRS Exempt Division gave some interesting "non-testimony" at  the House Government Oversight Committee hearing on the IRS Investigations of Targeting Conservative Groups, Chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA 49th).    

Lerner's attorney had publicized that she would invoke her Constitutional Fifth Amendment privileges of not potentially incriminating herself through testimony.  Yet Lerner gave an impassioned opening statement which was an apologia proclaiming her innocence. 




And then Lerner clammed up, refusing to take questions from Congress by invoking her Fifth Amendment rights. 

Representative Trey Gowdy (R-SC 4th), a former Federal Prosecutor, insisted that Lerner had waived her Fifth Amendment privilege with her opening statement as well as authenticating documents.  Chairman Issa dismissed Lerner and her counsel, with the possibility that she may be called back to testify. 

Newt Gingrich raised an interesting item of intellectual jujitsu--

This celebrity oriented culture ought to ask Wesley Snipes and Lauren Hill how that strategery (sic) works out in the real world. 

Impeach-Mint: A New Flavor for a Hot Summer in the District of Calamity

The summer of 1973 was a hot time in the District of Calamity when it seemed like every day news broke about scandals connected to the White House, which eventually lead to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

 In the span of one week, three emerging scandals have embroiled the Obama Administration. The long festering Benghazi Bungle became critical, with the straight-forward testimony of three career diplomat whistle blowers before Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa's  (R-CA 49th)  House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.  The fact that Libyian Chief of Mission Gregory Hicks was a Hillary Clinton for President supporter and twice voted for President Obama  added fuel to the fire, as the Congressional probe could not be deftly dismissed as a partisan witch hunt.

Libyan Chief  of Mission Gregory Hicks testifying before Congress

On Friday at an American Bar Association meeting,  the head of the IRS Exempt Organization Division Lois Lerner apologized for targeting conservative groups for special tax-exempt scrutiny.  At first this was attributed to a couple of low level IRS agents in Cincinnati and was part of a Friday DC data dump.  But it became clear that such intimidation occurred all over the country for several years.  Then it came out that right wing groups teaching about the Constitution received the "special" treatment.  This was odd since the educational element was sine qua non for a 501(c)(4) organization.   The drip-drip continued when it was exposed that conservative Jewish groups were interrogated about their feelings about the State of Israel.

If that was not bad enough, the Associated Press reported that , Eric Holder's Department of Justice surreptitiously surveilled a score of journalist's phone records for two months supposedly to plug a leak about a planned terrorist attack.  The Obama Administration scrutinized reporters' home, cell and office phones for two months, without informing the Associated Press.   As the Associated Press was cooperative once it learned of the DOJ investigation which calls into question whether such a broad and secret warrant was necessar. .

With the daily drip of scandal, it seems like it will be a hot summer in the city.  It might be time for Ben and Jerry to craft a culinary creation to make this summer of scandal more palatable with Impeach-Mint.

It is dubious if this fanciful flavor would ever get off the drawing board, as progressives would waffle at profiting from the indiscretions of an ideology whom they idealized as a light worker of hope and change.

h/t:  Mad Magazine

The District of Calamity Recipe for Burnt Rice

The House Oversight and Investigative Committee hearings on Benghazi held by Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA 49th) has shown that the State  knew from the get go that the attack on the Benghazi consulate was not due to a spontaneous demonstration about an anti-Islamic internet video.

So as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D-NY) famously asked in the earlier Benghazi hearing-- "What difference does it make?"




Briefly, the testimony from the three high level diplomats to Libya showed  decision making with eschewed customary operating procedure, it alluded to political pressure on career State Department bureaucrats to silence the Benghazi bungle (which in the law is called Obstruction of Justice), highlights an Obama Administration more intent on campaigning to get re-elected rather than governing in America's interest. This sort of testimony could give someone a headache (sic).

Moreover, it shows that the most of the media are Obama Administration toadies who will ignore and obfuscate rather than pursue the truth to a scandal larger than Watergate where four brave Americans died. And most of the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee ran interference to denigrate the witnesses to protect Mrs. B.J. Clinton's presidential prospects in 2016.

Well, this lie emanating from the Oval Office and the State Department was a recipe for burnt rice from a willing dupe. Maybe the recipe came from the cookbook for 3 am snacks, right next to Stand By Your Man cookies.

The Payoff of Obama's Green Bets?

One of then candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL)'s  promises when he ran for President in 2008 was that he would create five million green jobs.




So as part of the Feburary 2009 stimulus (a.k.a. Porkulous) of $847 Billion, almost 6%, or $50 Billion,  was earmarked for shovel ready green energy, to be monitored by Vice President Joe Biden.  That was a pretty significant "investment" in energy from solar, wind, geothermal and maybe unicorn flatulence.

Despite anemic job growth during the Obama so called Recovery, America has come nowhere near creating five million green jobs.  But to justify what they have Representative Darrell Issa's (R-CA 49th) Government Reform and Oversight Committee hearing in June 2012 explored how the Obama Department of Labor defines "green jobs".



My favorites were floor sweeper at a Green manufacturer, antiques dealer and an Oil Lobbyist who advocates green issues.

Many critics of Porkulous suspected that it was an unwise expenditure from the Federal Government that acted like a slush fund for the Obama Administration's favorite groups and contributors.  The cronyism and corruption in green transportation can be seen in Amtrak, supposed High Speed Rail projects and most pointedly in green energy projects (FutureGen coal gassification and Solyndra).

During the First Presidential Debate in Denver, Republican Presidential nominee Governor Mitt Romney asserted that President Obama did not pick just with winners and losers with $90 Billion in tax breaks but that the incumbent picks losers.




Let's see how President Obama's bets on green energy companies have been paying off.

To use the Obama 2012 forward (sic) sounding campaign parlance,  are you ready to go all in with your great grandchildren's inheritance or are you going to hedge your bets on November 6th?