The Beltway press’s defense of civility is breathtaking. Any lie can be told. And theory can be bandied about, no matter how little substantiation it has. But let the House chairman of the Oversight & Government Reform committee call the White House press secretary a “paid liar” and suddenly the world has come to an end.
For the first few weeks, Republicans saw the Oversight hearings as a gift — no one likes the IRS, dead diplomats in Libya or the government snooping on reporters. But one misstep — like referring to a White House press secretary as a “paid liar” — could cause the effort to backfire.
What about the fact that nothing that Darrell Issa says has any connection to the truth? Shouldn’t we be more concerned about the lying Issa does than allegations of lying he makes about others? Which should do more harm to his credibility?
Shortly after Darrell Issa dubbed Jay Carney a “paid liar” on CNN last Sunday, House Republican leadership staffers called the California Republican’s aides with a message: Cool it.
Oh noes! Issa is making it personal.
“He has made this personal,” one senior Republican told POLITICO. “He’s added an unnecessary element to the news cycle.”
“When you make Jay Carney the issue, that’s the problem,” said another senior House GOP leadership aide. “No one cares about Jay Carney. That’s a sideshow; it’s not the real issue.”
How about the fact that he sounds like a 9/11 Truther when he alleges that the IRS had an enemies list that they used to help the president win reelection? No “cool it” for that?
As for Benghazi, bring it on.
Ambassador Thomas Pickering, who led the State Department-ordered investigation into the attack for the Obama administration, gave emotional closed-door testimony on Tuesday in front of Issa’s panel that stretched out over eight hours, sources said.
Pickering said that he was very close to U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stephens, who was killed in the Benghazi attacks. At the age of 81, Pickering said, he has no incentive to cover anything up, these sources said.
Democrats walked away from the testimony thinking they struck political gold, and if Issa allows Pickering to testify in public, the Benghazi issue will be put to bed.
Sometimes I wonder if Issa and the wingnuts even know Chris Stevens’ name or ever think about what politicizing his death does to his family or the morale of the State Department.
Sometimes I wonder why the Beltway press is more upset that one of their veterans was called a liar than they are about the liar who made the allegation.
