DARRELL ISSA CHANNELS CHRIS MATTHEWS

Last week, ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Darrell Issa (R) said there was 'not a chance' of Obama being impeached. Issa seems to have taken that stance a bit further after huge Republican gains in the House that will make him the Chairman of that committee. Throughout the entire last year, Issa has talked tough on the Black Panther case, the Joe Sestak bribe and other scandals tied to this administration. He's even beefed up his staff, ostensibly to carry out these investigations.

Uh, apparently not. POLITICO is quoting Issa as saying that his job is to help Obama succeed. I'm not making this up:

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who will have far-ranging subpoena power in the new Congress as a result of Tuesday’s election, is going out of his way to dispel perceptions that he’s a partisan bombthrower who plans to use his newfound authority to paralyze President Barack Obama’s administration.

“I want to prove the pundits wrong. My job is not to bring down the president. My job is to make the president a success,” Issa said on a midnight conference call with reporters, just after House Minority Leader John Boehner’s victory speech.

Issa took a restrained view of his likely new post as chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, saying that on many issues his panel would play second fiddle to other Congressional committees. “Our jurisdiction is narrow,” Issa said. “I’m going to stick to my knitting, which is waste, fraud and abuse, whenever possible.”

As ranking member, Issa has talked tough for many many months. On the night it became apparent he would be chairman, granting him subpoena power, he suddenly backs off?!

Pathetic. Besides, I thought making sure that Obama succeeds is Chris Matthews' job:



h/t to Weasel Zippers