Joe Conason: Meet the leader of the Obama witch hunt

[babylonsister]

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joe_conason/story/index.html?story=%2Fopinion%2Fconason%2F2010%2F11%2F10%2Fissa2

Meet the leader of the Obama witch hunt
If past is prologue, Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa will aim low and cheap -- by probing stimulus road signs!
By Joe Conason

snip//


...the threshold for investigation is absurdly low, such as the question of whether federal agencies are spending too much money on signs to identify construction projects funded by stimulus money under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Road signs displaying the names of various government officials and agencies are neither new nor scandalous, but local Republicans have been whining about the erection of signs bearing the president’s name and the Recovery Act logo as examples of Soviet-style propaganda. For months, Issa has been riding this issue, promoting stories in local newspapers that suggest waste, wrongdoing and political misuse of funds, with hints that the Recovery Act symbol bears a suspicious resemblance to the 2008 Obama campaign logo. Last August, World Net Daily, which did so much to promote phony scandals a decade ago, urged its gullible readers to "report" the ARRA signs to Issa's office (under the byline of the foul-mouthed Swift boat hoaxter Jerome Corsi).

This week, Issa indicated that he will continue to pursue such small-time, seemingly bogus concerns with a tweet linking to an article complaining about stimulus project signage in the Greeley Gazette: "Citizen-watchdogs & new technology made this (http://tinyurl.com/28egdr5) possible ... how can we do more of this? Would love your thoughts."

It is hard to imagine that road signs represent more than a minuscule fraction of 1 percent of the $787 billion stimulus budget, but then again Republicans constantly bemoan minor spending items -- such as congressional earmarks -- that actually have almost no real fiscal impact. Perhaps their budgetary record is historically so miserable because they just can't do the arithmetic. But that can scarcely be true of Issa, an entrepreneur who earned his own huge fortune and is still the wealthiest member of Congress.

Certainly Issa should provide serious oversight of the stimulus spending, which is a fundamental congressional responsibility assigned to his committee. He ought to stop taking potshots at road signs -- and instead start examining the administration's record in selecting and contracting projects.

Of course, that might not be quite as much fun as stirring up the Tea Party rubes with diversions like the road sign "issue." According to the independent watchdogs at Pro Publica and Politifact, the administration has succeeded in contracting stimulus projects at considerably lower cost than originally anticipated so far. Lower bidding has meant millions of dollars saved, with those saved funds in turn financing thousands of additional projects -- and many thousands of jobs -- across the country.

[onehandle]

1. How about the cost of mailing the tax 'rebate' checks (propaganda) sent out by Bush?

I trust that he will be looking into that misappropriation of federal money.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Now, now--what's past is past.

We need to be looking forward--specifically to unseating Obama in 2012.

[madmom]

3. Didn't someone have to make those signs? Doesn't that mean creating jobs?

[SidDithers]

4. K&R...nt

Sid