Having lived through this once, I don't want to have to live through it again. You see, I remember what happened here in California in 2003. After 16 years of extreme Republican Governors-- George Deukmejian, who decided to make California the prison capital of the world, and Pete Wilson, supporter of Prop 187-- the Democrats finally regained the governor's office in 2000 with the election of Gray Davis.
Davis was a rising star in the Democratic Party and he did great things in terms of education and the environment. Unfortunately, the state had been gutted by the Republicans, the Dotcom bust was in full swing, and he was hobbled by a fake electricity crisis engineered by Enron. Any of this sound familiar?
Californian's were angry and Democrats were disappointed with Gray Davis, and that was all the opening the Republicans needed to remove him from office. It was Darrell Issa who led and bankrolled the California recall, spending over 1.6 million dollars of his own money. And because of Issa, California is in the worst shape ever. It's become a punchline to the rest of the world. Issa will do the same thing to the United States if we let him.
So who is Darrell Issa? He's been selling himself as a reasonable businessman who made a fortune (at least 250 million dollars) from selling car alarms. He's got his talking points down so it's not easy to know exactly what he intends to do-- or is it? Let me tell you a little something about this Congressman from SoCal.
1972 was not a good year for Darrell Issa. The 19 year-old got into multiple scrapes with the law. There was the time he was arrested for stealing a Maserati from a Cleveland car dealership. Then there was the time he was arrested for illegal weapons possession-- he claims it was a boxcutter. Then there was another arrest for carrying illegal weapons; Issa claimed the gun wasn't his-- the police report says otherwise, then he claimed it was a ""unloaded . . . little teeny pistol." Actually, why don't we let the San Francisco Chronicle report;
Rep. Darrell Issa, the driving force behind the effort to recall Gov. Gray Davis, was carrying a loaded .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol, 44 bullets and a tear gas gun when he was arrested on a weapons charge in 1972, public records show. A police report regarding Issa's arrest in Adrian, Mich., claims Issa was more heavily armed than he has said since The Chronicle first reported the incident in a story July 2. San Francisco Chronicle (July 17, 2003)
It turns out that Darrell Issa was quite a little thug when he was young. But what I find even more disturbing than these "youthful indiscretions" is how Issa tried to keep them hidden and then lied about them 20 years later.
Issa wants you to give him the benefit of the doubt and considers his past "off limits," everybody makes mistakes afterall. So what could explain his behavior ten years later? In 1982 the Los Angeles Times "reported Issa had allegedly threatened a former business partner with a gun and said arson was suspected in a 1982 fire at his Ohio plant." Fresno Bee 5/29/98
A 1998 story in the Los Angeles Times contained allegations that as a businessman in 1982, Issa had brought a gun to the offices of a Cleveland auto- alarm company called A.C. Custom. The newspaper said the incident had occurred the day after Issa had won a court order giving him control of the company because it had failed to repay a $60,000 loan. According to the newspaper, Issa carried a cardboard box into the office of an A.C. Custom executive named Jack Frantz and told Frantz he was fired. Inside the box was a handgun, the newspaper quoted Frantz as saying. Frantz said Issa had invited him to hold the gun and claimed extensive knowledge of guns and explosive from his Army service, the newspaper said. The newspaper quoted Issa as saying, "Shots were never fired. . . . I don't recall having a gun. I really don't. I don't think I ever pulled a gun on anyone in my life." San Francisco Chronicle 7/2/2003
Something was going on with Issa in 1982 that wasn't pretty. That same year, a grand jury indicted Issa and his brother for grand larceny.
Issa decided in 1998 to run for Senate. His Republican primary opponent was Matt Fong. Fong characterized Issa,
as a racist and extremist. Fong was pressed on the issue by a Mercury News journalist, who asked whether Fong owed Issa an apology for a campaign aide's statement linking Issa with Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. Fong spokesman Steve Schmidt said this week that Issa's nomination would be "the single biggest embarrassment -- although a different embarrassment -- for the Republican Party since David Duke ran for governor of Louisiana." Fong said the "statement stands by itself." Fresno Bee 5/29/98
Darrell Issa, by his own words, is a liar. He will lie to your face and say that you're the liar. Just as he ran the recall of California's Governor, he will hold impeachment hearings against Barack Obama. As much as he wanted to be Governor, he desperately wants to be President. If he is put in charge of a Congressional Committee, he will ride a Joseph McCarthy crusade that you won't believe.
During the recall Issa was confronted with his lies and past criminal record, Issa ruled it all off limits and then went on the attack; "It's the felonies of Gray Davis that are on trial today. What the Governor has done to California is a felony."
No Congressman, Gray Davis never did anything wrong-- but you did.
Issa is not a moderate. He's an extremist ideologue intent on overturning the will of the American people. He's slick and he's learned the game of politics well, but his past tells you everything you need to know about this scalp hunter. There can be no doubt what a Republicon like Issa will do, he's already impeached a Governor, and he will go after the President next.