WaPo Columnist: ‘Is Darrell Issa the New Joe McCarthy?’
Washington Post columnist David Ignatius asked a bizarre question on the badly-named 'PostPartisan” blog: “Is Darrell Issa the new Joe McCarthy?” Clearly, the Post knows that when a liberal blurs you with McCarthy, they mean you are a life-wrecking, fact-mangling monster fueled by demons like ambition and alcohol. The headline is designed for web traffic, since the normally calm Ignatius concluded: “Issa doesn't come across as a McCarthyite.” But Issa calling Team Obama “corrupt” was deeply upsetting to the Posties. Wrote Ignatius: It was scary, frankly, to hear Issa describe the executive branch under President Obama as “one of the most corrupt administrations.” What on earth was he talking about? This is an administration that has often tied itself in knots with petty ethical rules. Issa's comment bordered on demagogy. When you see the righteous gleam in Issa's eye, recall other zealous congressional investigators who claimed to be doing the public's business but ended up pursuing vendettas. I think of Robert F. Kennedy's ruthless pursuit of labor “racketeering” when he was chief counsel of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. And, more chilling, I think of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's use of that subcommittee to probe what he imagined was Communist Party subversion in America. read more
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WaPo Columnist: ‘Is Darrell Issa the New Joe McCarthy?’
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on January 6, 2011. Filed under