Issa and IRS: What Issa knew and when he knew it

{mosads}Of course, in my view, Issa should not be subpoenaed or put under oath. Though partisan Republicans and the stampeding herd of the major media (I mean you, too, Bob Woodward) might consider the fact that Issa’s long silence on the IRS report is no more Nixonian than the conduct of President Obama or his White House counsel.

In fact, Nixon has nothing to do with this, and Woodward would be well advised to consider doing some new (real) reporting rather than employing old (and absurd) comparisons of anyone today with Nixon. 

For the record, when my colleague Lanny Davis calls for the removal of the White House counsel, and when my colleague Bill Press calls for the removal of the attorney general, I disagree with both of them — strongly. 

Issa kept his silence for some time about the IRS report, and I agree with him — strongly. Let’s have the investigation before the trial. Let’s have the trial before the hanging. Let’s ignore the clamoring herd of the major media. 

Even Sarah Palin, like a broken clock, will be right twice a day. When Palin refers to the “lamestream media”, on this matter I often agree with her (Chris Matthews, I mean you too, regarding certain overheated statements in recent days). 

Make no mistake. I deplore the IRS abuses against the Tea Party and believe those who committed them should be held firmly accountable. But when the White House counsel made the decision to not inform the president before the IG report was completed and public, I agree with her.

Imagine what partisan Republicans and the stampeding herd would have said about “Obama interfering with IRS report.” I strongly disagree with the Justice Department overkill regarding the leaks investigation, including actions directed against the Associated Press and, apparently, James Rosen of Fox News. 

But make no mistake, I know a lot about intelligence matters from being involved in matters of high policy when I worked for congressional leaders, as well as from personal experience, and some of these leaks do real damage to our national security.

They should be investigated. The only question is how. The stampeding herd of the media and all who report on national security matters should be far more careful about going public with information that can indeed endanger intelligence sources and methods.

As for Obama, the herd stampeded last week with the slogan “Obama had the worst week.”

However, if we only looked at the public opinion polls, Obama had a great week. This does not mean he had a great week. It does mean that when too many herds leave too many droppings in their wake, the aroma of the herd that left the droppings does not smell so sweet with the people who matter in America: the people.