Darrell Issa Reminds The Grandstanders: It's Not About You

House Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa doesn't think that witnesses should be forced to sit around for an hour while committee members indulge their narcissism.How many people do they think turn on C-SPAN to watch this crap anyway?

At the start of the hearing, chairman Rep. Darrell Issa announced the committee members would waive their opening statements and instead would have seven days to place them into the record.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, the committee’s ranking Democrat, immediately fought back questioning this deviation in traditional procedure, but Issa held his ground.


“I recognize that tradition is we hold the members, the witnesses here for sometimes an hour through opening statements.  That is a tradition that I intend to break,” Issa said.  “That doesn’t mean there won’t be opening statements in the future.”


Issa’s decision to omit opening statements at the hearing stems from his desire to hear from the witnesses, Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for TARP, and Tim Massad, a Treasury official, first instead of from the committee members.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich later interrupted and stated, “I’ve been in the Congress for 14 years, and I’ve never - it’s just unprecedented that the ranking member not be permitted to give an opening statement.”

Issa shot down Kucinich and continued to stop Rep. Stephen Lynch from voicing his opinion on the issue as well.