I proudly manage the IssaWatch.com project for the Courage Campaign.
As Sunshine Week — an annual, national push to make government more open and transparent — begins, we at Courage Campaign are calling for Darrell Issa to back up his rhetoric with action. After resisting calls for his own disclosure while criticizing the Obama Administration for similar, we're calling on Rep. Issa to disclose all the meetings he has with lobbyists. While this sort of hypocrisy is nothing new from Issa, the double-standard is particularly audacious. Rick Jacobs recently sent this message to Courage members explaining the effort.
I can't believe what Issa just said:
“The current lack of transparency lends credence to the perception that bureaucrats are picking winners and losers in a politicized environment where the winners are favored constituencies of the Administration.”-Darrell Issa (1)
What?! Lack of transparency? This coming from the Chairman of one of the most powerful Congressional Committees, who refuses to disclose which lobbyists he meets with?
Tell Issa to speak for himself. Sign our petition here demanding he disclose who he meets with.
Look, access is everything. That’s what our friend Rena learned while waiting in vain for three hours outside a private country club hoping to talk to her Congressman, Darrell Issa, about the challenges she’s facing as a small businesswoman, a mom, and a hard-working taxpayer with pre-existing health conditions.
When President Obama recently asked members of Congress to post who they are meeting with online — so the public knows who is really steering our ship of state — he gave people like Rena hope. Unfortunately, her Congressman dismissed this idea out of hand (2). But in doing so, he invited an obvious question: What does Darrell Issa, one of the most powerful people in government, have to hide?
As I wrote recently in a San Diego Union Tribune op-ed (3), the first thing Issa did as chair of the powerful Government Oversight Committee — after months of right-wing media grandstanding — was ask corporate lobbyists and right-wing DC insiders for wish lists to guide his agenda. His next move was building an oversight staff full of walking conflicts of interest (4), and appointing subcommittee chairs whose campaigns have been bankrolled by the very industries they are supposed to regulate.
Then, after voting to let insurance companies once again deny coverage to the 331,000 constituents (5) like Rena with pre-existing conditions, Issa held hearings on bank bailouts and the mortgage meltdown. And with one in 10 homeowners in his district facing foreclosure (6), he inexplicably didn’t call a single banker or loan servicer to testify before his committee. Not one.
We already know who doesn't have access to Darrell Issa. Now it's time for Darrell Issa to come clean about who does.
Thank you for standing with us,
Rick
P.S. Darrell Issa is the richest member of Congress, supported by deep-pocketed corporate interests, but if we all join together, we can win this. Can you chip in $5 today and help us continue to hold him accountable?
(1) http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2011/03/09/issa-zeros-in-on-health-law-waivers/?mod=google_news_blog
(2) http://thehill.com/homenews/house/140441-rep-issa-obama-feigns-perfection-on-lobbying-rules
(3) http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/feb/24/chairman-issa-oversight-for-whom
(4) http://www.watchdoginstitute.org/2011/02/28/industry-insiders-score-jobs-on-issas-team/