Predictable: Liberal 'Advocacy Group' Hits Issa With Ethics Complaint

This is what happens when someone asks uncomfortable questions of the White House. The smear campaigns begin.

A liberal advocacy group is filing an ethics complaint against Rep. Darrell Issa, alleging that the California Republican has repeatedly used his public office for personal gain.

The group, American Family Voices, is planning to file the complaint with the House Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) on Tuesday.

The five-page complaint, which was obtained by The Hill, accuses Issa of using his position as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to add to his multimillion-dollar fortune.

An Issa spokesman on Monday said the allegations have absolutely no merit and are part of a smear campaign spearheaded by the White House.

The complaint alleges that Issa pressured the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to halt an investigation of Goldman Sachs shortly after he bought a huge stake in one of Goldman’s high-yield mutual funds.

It also claims Issa used his authority to improperly defend Merrill Lynch, a firm with “which he has a significant financial interest,” the document states.

“In fact and in appearance, Rep. Issa has repeatedly — and impermissibly — used his public position to promote his private financial interests,” Mike Lux, president of American Family Voices, wrote in a letter to former Reps. Porter Goss (R-Fla.) and David Skaggs (D-Colo.), co-chairmen of the OCE.

A spokesman for Issa said the complaint is part of an effort orchestrated by the White House to discredit its critics.

“This complaint is entirely without merit. The White House has used an assortment of outside progressive groups in an effort to attack Oversight and Chairman Issa directly. This is just their latest salvo in an ongoing effort to obstruct oversight,” said Frederick Hill, Issa’s spokesman.

To no surprise, they're using the discredited New York Times story for their charges.

Lux cites a 3,080-word investigative report published in The New York Times on Aug. 15 and reporting by Thinkprogress.org, a liberal media outlet.

Issa's obviously getting too close to the White House in the Gun Walker investigation. Just watch: This bogus complaint will get more news focus than Gun Walker.

Not mentioned in the story is this Mike Lux character was a member of the Obama transition team.

Update: It should comes as little surprise that Lux writes for the far-left cesspool Crooks and Liars. Here's his byline in a piece attacking -- wait for it -- Darrell Issa! Just the other days he slobbered all over Obama at the Huffington Post. And he's also a Kos Kid!

Issa: Holder is Dangerously Inept

Just imagine if these gunrunning scandals were happening under a Republican administration. The wall-to-wall coverage would knock even the latest Obama "pass this bill" speech off the air.

Money quote around the two-minute mark:

“We have a paper trail of so many people knowing that the only way the Attorney General didn’t know is he made sure he didn’t want to know. But if you don’t want to know something of this sort then you shouldn’t have the job he has. And ultimately that’s one of the questions is, if he didn’t know, is he that inept that he is dangerous to have as the Attorney General, and that is for the president to decide.”

Thanks to Matt Wolking for the clip.

Issa Hammers NY Times for 'Hit Piece'

The New York Times today published a lengthy article on Republican Congressman Darrell Issa, which made us wonder where the substantive investigations were into Barack Obama's past back when he ran for president. Of course, Issa is now head of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and investigating the Obama Administration (and being stonewalled every step of the way), so it's time to go after Issa.

He's not taking it lightly.

Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-Calif.) office has dismissed an article in The New York Times about his work in Washington as a “hit piece.”

In a memo released Monday, Issa’s office slammed the article, which examined connections between Issa’s private business interests and his work as a congressional leader.

“The New York Times piece is riddled with factual errors and careless assertions that has resulted in a story predicated on innuendo and not fact,” said Frederick R. Hill, an Issa spokesman.

“It’s disappointing that the so-called ‘paper of record’ has decided to publish a story that is nothing more than a compilation of left-wing blog posts that are easily found by a simple Google search.”

Indeed, one of those posts was from the Democratic Party fever swamp Think Progress. Imagine my surprise.

Rep. Darrell Issa (Squish-CA) Broadcasts His Intent to Vote to Raise the Debt Ceiling

What a dummy.

Any particular reason why Issa must preface his otherwise coherent remarks (quoted below) by saying right off the bat that his vote to raise the debt ceiling is in the bag? Gee, sounds like he's really going to drive a hard bargain with Democrats at the negotiating table. One can only hope the "come-to-Jesus moment" he says he insists on as a condition for his vote is more substantive than the bill of goods we were just sold by John Boehner last week.

"It's inevitable that it will pass. We will undoubtedly vote. I will vote to raise it. It does have to come with a real come-to-Jesus moment where we say what are we doing along with raising the debt ceiling. Are we making changes in how we raise and spend money or are we simply kicking the can down the road for our grandchildren? That's the moment which we are hoping to use along with Paul Ryan's budget, which we intend to pass in a timely fashion. But we have got to start talking about how we are going to spend less, not more," Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) told FOX Business.

RealClearPolitics has the video.

Cross-posted.

Issa Subpoenas 'Friends of Angelo'

Maybe Angelo's buddy Chris Dodd will soon return to Washington and appear under oath.

The chairman of a House oversight panel issued a broad subpoena Wednesday seeking documents related to a controversial VIP lending program run by Countrywide Financial Corp., with the goal of finding out which public officials benefited.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) sent the subpoena to Bank of America Corp. (BAC) , which acquired Countrywide in 2008. Countrywide's former chief executive, Angelo Mozilo, has long faced allegations that he approved loans for favored borrowers in violation of the company's lending policies.

The subpoena is Issa's first as chairman of the oversight panel after Republicans assumed control of the House last month. Issa had clashed in fall 2009 with the committee's former Democratic Chairman, Rep. Edolphus Towns (D., N.Y.) over whether to investigate the program. Towns ultimately agreed to a narrower subpoena.

Towns received two mortgage loans under the program, The Wall Street Journal reported in August 2009. At the time, he contended that he had no knowledge that he was in the program and didn't receive any special treatment.

The loan program, known as "Friends of Angelo," provided loans at rates and terms more favorable than what Countrywide offered to the general public. Lawmakers have been scrutinizing whether those VIP loans were also aimed at influencing public officials.

Issa said Countrywide "orchestrated a deliberate and calculated effort to use relationships with people in high places in order to manipulate public policy and further their bottom line to the detriment of the American taxpayers even at the expense of its own lending standards."

Americans, he said, "have right to know the totality of who participated...and what they did in return for access to it."

Accountability. How quaint.

Naturally, the Democrats are eager to give Issa the Ken Starr treatment, no holds barred, and no answers as to who's funding the goon squad. ALl part of the new civility and tone in Washington or something.

After last month's shooting of a congresswoman, President Obama urged more civility. How civil is it to destroy a congressional oversight committee chairman for practicing oversight?

Democrats have tapped the political operative known as Dr. Death to lead a character assassination operation against Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight.

Averell "Ace" Smith of San Francisco's liberal Democratic consulting firm SCN Strategies, a "cutthroat" operative who won the California and Texas Democratic primaries for Hillary Clinton in 2008, will leave "no stone unturned in digging into Issa's personal and business history," SCN told Politico this week.

Why Issa? Because the California Republican is asking 180 federal agencies to explain their voluminous Freedom of Information Act request refusals in detail.

He intends to stop government-funded studies of condoms, yoga, video games for the elderly and whether marijuana and malt liquor mix well.

And he demands to know how $160 million in taxpayer money ended up being spent defending Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's former executives in fraud lawsuits.

Someone so intent on digging up the bodies has to be stopped — or discredited. And so the man the San Francisco Chronicle calls "the Dr. Death of Political Opposition Research" is establishing an entity called "the Third Lantern" to dig into Issa's personal life and attack him on TV and radio. It follows an already-existing anti-Issa website, "Courage Campaign."

Democratic strategist and Smith friend Chris Lehane told the Los Angeles Times that "Ace is a Michael Corleone" because he knows "under which rib to insert the knife." Former Democratic strategist Clint Reilly told the Chronicle: "I've seen him walk into a room and the opposition candidate will literally start mumbling." Real estate developer Steve Soboroff told the L.A. Times, "Ace is very mischievous, in a dark way."

Maybe someone ought to look under Ace's bed. I bet he's got a private life he'd like to keep private. Lehane is one of the sleaziest operatives out there. If he says Smith is a bad guy, believe him.

'Dancing With the Czars'

Hey, who knew those stodgy Republicans could bring the funny?

As House Republicans continued to call for NPR to be defunded on Friday, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) drew attention to a large grant the company received this month from the left-leaning philanthropist George Soros.

Um, left-leaning?

Left-leaning??? Are they serious? Contrast the absurd use of that term with how the "left-leaning" NPR describes Republicans. Anyway back to Issa and the "left-leaning" NPR.

He even suggested some new shows for National Public Radio: "Dancing with the Czars" and "Socialist Survivor," to name a few.

The Open Society Foundation announced this month it would provide a $1.8 million grant to the outlet, allowing it to fund 100 new reporters over the next three years. Soros established the foundations.

The development came a few days ahead of a Republican effort to question whether a news organization with a reputation of being left-leaning should be allowed to receive public funding. NPR is financed through both public and private dollars, but most of its funding is private.

As calls to defund the outlet heated up, Issa pointed out the political bent of major NPR donor Soros.

"With NPR benefitting from the generosity of people like MoveOn.org financier George Soros, it’s obvious that NPR is now a self-sustaining entity that no longer needs to rely on federal funds. As an independent entity, they will be free to serve Mr. Soros’s far-left agenda," said Issa, ranking member of the House Oversight Committee.

He also teased NPR's left-leaning reputation.

"Once NPR is free from the umbrella of accepting, receiving and being eligible for taxpayer dollars, maybe Soros can fully finance NPR’s fall schedule with spin-offs of some of America’s favorite shows such as, ‘Dancing with the Czars’ or ‘Socialist Survivor’ and ‘Lost: The Obama Presidency,’ " he said.

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Friday that he is adding a measure to defund NPR to a program that allows the public to vote on spending programs they could live without.

The outlet fell under Republican scrutiny this week after firing analyst Juan Williams for remarks he made about people in Muslim attire. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee criticized NPR for being too politically correct and for cutting off free expression.

This is what's it's come to with the media. Republicans are ultra-conservative, especially when described by hosts at the "left-leaning" NPR.

Hard left radicals, well, they just lean left. They're not fully left, heck, they're not even liberals, they're just left-leaning. It implies that, well, if they just tilted back upright another 15 degrees they'd be centrists, or moderates.

But no, we can't even call them liberals anymore. That's a pejorative by today's standards.

But Republicans? Why, they're hard right, ultra-conservatives. Do you ever even see them referred to as right-leaning?

Then we get wild-eyed leftists really projecting. This one calls Republicans radical extremists.

Shocker! Obama Political Director 'Forgot' He Was on SEIU Payroll Last Year

Just imagine the buzz and hubbub surrounding this scandal if the JournoList were still alive.

A former top official for a huge New York union who is now the White House political director failed to disclose more than $37,000 in income from the union last year, it was reported yesterday.

As the former public-affairs executive for Service Employees International Union Local 1199, Patrick Gaspard earned $37,191 in carried-over pay while on the White House payroll.

He failed to disclose the income on financial-disclosure forms, Politico reported. Where arrangements for payment by a former employer must be listed on the form, he checked a box indicating he had nothing to report.

The discrepancy was caught by California Rep. Darrell Issa, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. In a letter to the White House, he told Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina of the unstated income.

"As I am sure you are aware, there are very specific limitations on the outside earned income of presidential appointees," Issa wrote.

The administration downplayed Gaspard's failure to include the income on this and last year's disclosure forms. White House spokesman Bill Burton told Politico that the political director was in the process of correcting the forms to reflect that he did have an agreement for severance.

"We have made the small administrative change to this year's and last year's forms to indicate that part of the final payout to Patrick reflected in their typical severance of one week of pay for each of his nine years of service at Local 1199," Burton said.

Gaspard is a key player in the Obama White House, which maintains deep ties to labor unions, especially the service-industries' union. He worked for nearly a decade for SEIU 1199 before joining Obama's campaign.

According to his disclosure forms, Gaspard earned $11,550 working on Obama's transition team and made $172,200 last year as director of the Office of Political Affairs.

It was from that post that he met last September with Gov. Paterson and urged him not to seek re-election.

Is there anyone mulling a run for office Team Obama hasn't leaned on?

You may recall Gaspard's name from this story from an item we noted last fall.

Critics also accuse the Working Families Party of having a long association with the troubled activist group, ACORN. Bertha Lewis, ACORN's CEO, is one of the party's co-founders. The New York Times reported this month that "Patrick Gaspard, the White House political director, worked with ACORN in New York to set up the Working Families political party and sat on the party's board with Ms. Lewis."

ACORN and Obama, perfect together.

Speaking of the late unlamented JournoList, I wonder how tight Gaspard is with this fellow? Worth also noting is where this pimple-faced puke just landed.

Much more here on the deep ties between Obama, Gaspard, Lewis, SEIU and ACORN.

Instapundit links. Thanks!

Pathetic: Obama Uses War on Goldman Sachs to Raise Money on Web

This is cheesy on so many levels, but not unexpected with this sleazy crew. Here you have a guy who raised the most money of any politician from the company he's now declared war on and now he turns around and uses them to piggyback off and direct people searching on the web for information about Goldman Sachs to his own personal website.

What a disgrace this man is.

President Obama is bringing his war on Wall Street to the enemy's turf.

He'll make his pitch for financial reform in the heart of lower Manhattan Thursday - even as his team make hay of the Goldman Sachs fiasco with a tech savvy appeal to Democratic donors.

Internet surfers who entered "Goldman Sachs SEC" into Google were directed to the president's campaign Web site via a sponsored link titled "Help Change Wall Street."

The White House's political arm paid for the keywords -- but would not say how much.

The tactic provided the latest evidence of how Obama and the Democratic National Committee are using the Securities and Exchange Commission's bombshell fraud suit against the financial giant to push financial-reform legislation through Congress.

But showing it, too, was gearing up for a political fight, Goldman Sachs hired Obama's former White House counsel, Gregory Craig, Politico reported last night.

Meanwhile, Democratic former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, speculated yesterday that there was "no coincidence" to the timing of the SEC suit.

And Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) wrote in a letter sent to the SEC, "It must be nice for Democrats that the SEC's filing against Goldman Sachs so conveniently fits into their political agenda."

The White House denied any link between the legislative push and the regulator's charges.

"The SEC doesn't notify the White House of its enforcement actions, and certainly didn't do so in this case," presidential press secretary Robert Gibbs said.

"Quite honestly, there was plenty of evidence . . . before the SEC got involved of the need to create new rules of the road."

The White House's Internet ad campaign drew Goldman into a click-for-click clash of the search terms yesterday, with the financial house buying its own ads to compete with those purchased by the president's team.

Goldman's ad featured the company's statement in response to charges filed Friday by the SEC.

The president's political operation says the Internet push bought up numerous other relevant search terms and phrases and started days before the SEC action against Goldman. They say they bought the term "Goldman SEC" after the lawsuit was filed.

The links -- some titled "Fight Wall Street Greed" -- led to the Web site of the White House's political arm, Organizing for America.

The chutzpah is just off the charts. They claim to be "fighting greed" and are raising money for Obama. It's beyond sleazy, but again, all too predictable for these guttersnipes.

Hot Air links. Thanks!

Update: To say this whole thing stinks is an understatement. Darrell Issa has a few questions. Interesting to note:

Nevertheless, the events of the past five days have fueled legitimate suspicion on the part of the American people that the Commission has attempted to assist the White House, the Democratic Party, and Congressional Democrats by timing the suit to coincide with the Senate’s consideration of financial regulatory legislation, or by providing Democrats with advance notice. In fact, the aggressive campaign by Democrats in support of the legislation neatly coincided with the Commission’s announcement of the suit. For example:

--The Commission approved the Goldman suit in a vote that spit along party lines – a rare occurrence for approvals of enforcement litigation.

--Before the Commission had released its announcement, the New York Times published on its website a story describing the suit.

--Less than half an hour after the Times story’s publication, Organizing for America, the successor organization to Obama for America and now a project of the Democratic National Committee (“DNC”), sent millions of supporters an e-mail message from President Obama urging support for “Wall Street Reform.”

--Within hours, the Democratic National Committee had purchased AdWords advertising from Google, Inc. The DNC’s Google campaign fundraising advertisement, headed “Fight Wall Street Greed,” appeared whenever a user ran a Google search for the phrase “Goldman Sachs SEC.” It read, “Help Pres. Obama Reform Wall Street and Create Jobs. Families First!” and included a link to www.BarackObama.com, the website of Organizing for America.

--Democrats in Congress and the Administration have heralded the Commission’s suit against Goldman as a welcome boost to their case for the legislation.

More from Doug Ross and Allahpundit.

Oh, and if Obama and his gang of crooks didn't do anything wrong, why is their link suddenly gone?

ACORN Changing Name, Disbursing Money to SEIU, Other Groups

The crime syndicate known as ACORN is on the run, but is getting plenty of cover from the Democrats, which comes as no surprise since they're an arm of the Democratic Party. Now since their name is radioactive they figure changing it will bamboozle an unwitting public while they work hand-in-hand with the goons from SEIU to funnel money away from themselves. How clever. Consider it one giant slush fund, all designed to aid the Democrats.

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, is in the process of changing its name and has already transferred many of its resources to several other left-wing advocacy and political groups, according to a report released Tuesday by Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

While the Justice Department has said that federal housing funds should continue to flow to ACORN, several congressmen, in a joint hearing of the House Oversight Committee and the Judiciary Committee, said they want a special prosecutor to investigate the group's use of taxpayer dollars.

Several weeks back, Congress included in the Continuing Appropriations Resolution for 2010 a provision that bars federal funds to ACORN and its “affiliates, subsidiaries or allied organizations.”

President Obama signed the resolution. But the Justice Department’s opinion issued last week cleared the way for funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to continue going to the organization, a group that many House Republicans have called a “criminal enterprise.”

Which indeed it is. Now Obama may be playing it cute by signing that resolution but make no mistake. Obama is ACORN, ACORN is Obama and and Eric Holder answers to Obama. Just imagine if there was so much financial chicanery going on with the GOP. Why, the media might even be inclined to investigate.

CNSNews.com could not reach an ACORN spokesman on Tuesday for comment after attempts by phone and e-mail. But ACORN spokesmen in the past have said that any illegal or unethical incidents were isolated and that the organization is dedicated to helping the poor.

However, the House Oversight report claimed otherwise, saying, “ACORN’s own training manual reflects a business model in which money is taken from poor people and then funneled into partisan political efforts.”

“ACORN is currently in the process of changing its name and has already transferred resources to several chapters of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and possibly Data and Field Services, the Working Families Party, Change to Win and the Council for Unity,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee.

The GOP damn well better make ACORN and their affiliates a big issue in the midterm elections. Of course they'll be accused of being raaaaacist, but then again, that's nothing new. They're already whining about a partisan witch-hunt.

ACORN is in the midst of its own investigation of the undercover videos, led by former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, but has also railed against what it calls a partisan witch hunt by Republicans.

“Allegations against ACORN continue to pour in—now it appears that the organization actively targeted incumbent Republican members of Congress in the 2008 election," Representative Lamar Smith, the ranking Republican on the judiciary committee, said in a statement. "This kind of political activity is a clear violation of ACORN’s nonprofit status. With more than a dozen investigations nationwide, federal law enforcement agencies can no longer ignore the shady actions of ACORN. Until then, not a single penny of taxpayer dollars should go to fund an organization that time and again has abused federal funds and the American people’s trust.”

Issa, meanwhile, pulls no punches.

"The current administration is fast becoming, in reality, the war room of ACORN's political machine," said Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican. "I am concerned that the era of corruption promulgated by ACORN and protected by the White House is just the beginning."

The top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said ACORN has engaged in "illegal, partisan activities designed to help individual Democratic members."

"This (action) goes from city councilmen to state assemblymen all the way to President Barack Obama," he said.

Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said Mr. Obama's past ties to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) will "taint any conclusions" by any Justice Department probe into the group.

While these reports don't indicate any name change, here are some suggestions.

John Heinz Kerry the Wealthiest U.S. Politician

Thanks to marrying Mama T, of course. Otherwise he'd probably be a pauper compared to some on this list.

The new kids walking the halls of Congress this year are also some of Capitol Hill’s richest lawmakers.

About a tenth of the 50 wealthiest lawmakers were either voted in during the election last November or appointed during early 2009. Reps. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), as well as appointed Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Ted Kaufman (D-Del.), are among the newcomers with pockets deep enough to make it on to The Hill’s Rich List.

The richest lawmaker is Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), a veteran senator and 2004 presidential nominee, who has a net worth of at least $167.8 million, thanks to his wife’s fortune. Some of the members well known for their wealth, such as Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Jane Harman (D-Calif.), are also on the Rich List, with hundreds of millions of dollars in assets.

Kerry and Harman have seen their fortunes decrease by millions of dollars compared to their reported wealth in previous years. Harman’s headline worth fell by more than $100 million from her 2007 estimate. Kerry saw a decline of more than $70 million. Issa, however, got richer. His wealth increased by at least $4 million, compared to reports from last year.

It doesn't indicate how Issa made is fortune, although he's apparently a savvy investor if he managed to make money in the past year.

Of the top 50, there are 26 Democrats and 24 Republicans. Keep that in mind when you hear these wealthy liberals playing the class warfare game.

Unreal: WH Claims Firing IG Was Act of 'Political Courage'

Cool. Obstruction of justice is now political courage.

A top White House lawyer called the firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin an act of "political courage," according to House Republican aides who were in a meeting with the lawyer Wednesday.

Norman Eisen, who is the White House Special Counsel to the President for Ethics and Government Reform, met with staffers for Rep. Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Wednesday. Eisen, along with a few White House staffers who accompanied him, "wanted to talk broadly about inspectors general," says a GOP aide familiar with what went on at the meeting. "When we pressed them on specific questions and documents, they said they weren't prepared to give us information on that."

In one exchange, according to the GOP aide, the White House lawyers explained that inspector general Walpin was not working well with the board of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees AmeriCorps, and the administration believed that IGs should work well with the leadership of their agencies. Eisen said he knew that removing Walpin might be seen as an action that would raise questions. "But [Eisen] said that what they did in trying to fix the situation was an act of political courage -- and 'political courage' is the phrase they used," says the aide.

It's come to this. Criminal behavior is now courageous.

I wonder if the firing of two other IG's was courageous?

Just a matter of time until Obama accepts a Profiles in Courage Award for this noble and heroic act of obstruction of justice.

Thanks to Dan Riehl for the link.