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Politics & The Nation
On investigative panel, he’s ‘not the overseer of the president’
BY PHILIP RUCKER Rep. Darrell Issa is finally get-
ting what he has long craved: subpoena power. From his new perch atop the committee re- sponsible for oversight investiga- tions, the California Republican will be able to demand any docu- ment he wishes and summon anybody to appear before him — no small thing for a man who recently referred to President Obama as “one of the most cor- rupt presidents in modern times.” Even so, there’s one thing Issa
says he won’t subpoena: Barack Obama’s birth certificate. “Mine is not the committee
that asks where the president was born,” Issa said in an inter- view. “It doesn’t ask what minis- ters thathewent to
think.All that stuff is a distraction. I’m not the overseer of the president.” The minority’s gadfly is trying
to become the majority’s mea- sured man. Issa is working to shed his reputation as an omni- present, henpecking nuisance whose shouting-forth turns into political headlines. Now empow-
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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2010 In power seat, Issa recasts self as Washington’s whistleblower
ered to vastly expand scrutiny across the federal government, including the White House, Issa wants to be seen asWashington’s whistleblower — not the presi- dent’s persecutor. Issa is one of the most antici-
pated new leaders of a revived Republican Party intent on deny- ingObama a second term.Hewill have to balance his own tempta- tion to embarrass the White House against the mission to ferret outwaste, fraud and abuse. If he overreaches, Issa knows
his credibility will be zapped. “Our committee is the commit-
tee of stopping government from taking away your liberties, gov- ernment from exceeding its au- thority, government from keep- ing your business from expand- ing and growing, government from spending your money less efficiently than you would spend it yourself,” Issa said.
‘An obligation’ Asked whether he would pur-
sue political prosecutions of the administration, Issa said: “I’m sure going to try not to. If there’s a violation of the Hatch Act [which prohibits federal employ- ees from engaging in political activities], my committee will deal with it because we have an obligation, but I’mnot getting up every day and trying to create one.”
This is a particularly re-
strained approach coming froma man whose achievements have come with bombast and velocity. After Issa (pronounced EYE-suh) and his brother ran into trouble with the law for car theft (Issa’s brother, William, claimed re- sponsibility), Darrell Issa invest- ed all of his savings, about $7,000, in starting a car-alarm business that he grew into a behemoth. His flagship inven- tion, the Viper, features Issa’s deep voice ordering would-be thieves to “please step away from the car.” In 2003, when he tired of
then-California Gov. Gray Davis (D), Issa spent $2 million of his ownmoney launching a seeming- ly quixotic but successful bid to recall him by ballot petition. But Issa was elbowed out by another outsize personality, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and tearfully withdrew from the crowded race to succeed Davis. Last year, as the House Over-
sight and Government Reform Committee’s ranking member andwith his party out of power at both ends of Pennsylvania Ave- nue, Issa parlayed his proclivity for publicity to establish a far bigger platformthan his position would normally afford. Now that Issa, 57, a Lebanese
American who grew up working- class but is one of the wealthiest
Housemembers, is set to assume the chairmanship, his makeover iswell underway. There are flash- es of his former self, such as the 8-by-10-inch wood-framed photo of one of his countless appear- ances on Fox News displayed on the window ledge of his dark office. But these days, Issa is turning down some requests for lengthy sit-down interviews, and he seems cautious in the few he finds time for.
A change of tone It was in October when Issa
told Rush Limbaugh he thought Obama was “one of the most corrupt presidents in modern times.” He later said he regretted the comment. Asked about his impressions of Obama, Issa said: “He’s clearly smart. He’s clearly focused and informed.” Al- though, he said, “we don’t sum- mer together or anything.” The White House is awaiting
Issa’smoves, aware that his is the perch from which the opposing party historically has launched attacks to weaken the president. “We will of course support
Congress in meeting its legiti- mate oversight responsibilities,” White House spokesman Reid Cherlin said. “It’s our hope that the administration and Congress can work together to ensure that this important function is not abusedto scorepoliticalpoints or
for other improper purposes.” During Bill Clinton’s second
term, Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) issued more than 1,000 subpoe- nas, even investigating the con- spiracy that White House aide Vince Foster’s suicide was amur- der. Inthe final two years ofGeorge
W. Bush’s administration, it was Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) who became a thorn in the side of the president.Waxman’s commit- tee probed Bush’s ties to convict- ed lobbyist Jack Abramoff and whether his administration ma- nipulated intelligence reports in the run-up to the Iraq war. (Issa called Waxman “a mean, angry man who wanted to berate peo- ple and bring them in front of Congress, and he did.”) “He can’t just be a pit bull,”
said former congressman Tom Davis (R-Va.), who as committee chairman this decade mentored Issa. “There’s the potential to discredit yourself by overreach- ing on some of these things . . . Darrell understands and will try to strike the right balance.” Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (Md.)
was chosen last week to become the topDemocrat on the commit- tee, a position fromwhich he said hewill go “toe to toe”with Issa. In an interview before his appoint- ment, Cummings called Issa “brilliant.” He said Democrats should treat Issa’s investigations like a chess game, always trying to be “seven steps ahead of him.” “I want to make sure that this
president is treated fairly and that there is not an abuse of the process,” Cummings said. “I don’t want to see the witch hunts. I don’t want to see the fishing expeditions.” In the past, Issa has suggested
investigating a 2008 voter-intim- idation case involving the Black Panthers, as well as the White House’s attempts to remove Rep.
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Joe Sestak (D) from a Pennsylva- nia Senate primary by offering him—byway of formerpresident Bill Clinton—an unpaid position in the administration. Issa said he has not decided
which investigations to launch in the new year. But he will almost assuredly continue the probe of Countrywide’s VIP program that is suspected of giving elected officials reduced-rate mortgages and investigations into food safe- ty and drug safety. “The intention is to have our first couple of hearings be those bipartisan is- sues we were already working on,” Issa said.
Broader policymandate Issa plans to seize a far broader
policy mandate than some of his predecessors to expose waste within the labyrinth of the feder- al bureaucracy, which is in line withhis party’s priority of cutting spending. He will give subpoena power to the dozens of inspectors general who serve as internal watchdogs at federal agencies. Already, industries and other
stakeholders who benefit from federal programs that could fall under Issa’s microscope are readying their cases.Washington lawyers who help clients prepare for congressional investigations said business is booming. “There’s awhole cottage indus-
try that’s devoted to this, and if anything the midterm elections stimulated that part of the econo- my seriously,” said Dean Zerbe, a former senior oversight aide to Sen. Charles
E.Grassley (R-Iowa) who ismanaging director at Alli- ant Group. Ted Hester, a senior partner at
King and Spalding, added: “Clearly, the companies and the industries that are impacted by that are taking note. . . . You can’t pick up a paper these days with- out seeing reference to oversight, oversight, oversight.” Issa’s tenacity and public per-
sona,whichhas some bite,proba- bly scares many of his likely witnesses. “But it shouldn’t,” said EarlDevaney, a veteran inspector general at the Interior Depart- ment whom Obama tapped last year to oversee stimulus spend- ing. “I have found himto be tough,
but fair,” Devaney said. “If you appear before him, you ought to have your facts in order and be very honest and forthright with him. Or he will detect that you’re not—and you’ll be in trouble.”
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