Republicans Bailing On 2018

Well, today yet another Republican sh*theel announced he won't seek re-election in 2018.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) announced Wednesday he will retire from Congress. [snip]

Issa narrowly won his re-election race against Democrat Doug Applegate in November 2016 by just 1,621 votes. It was Issa’s first competitive race in more than 15 years. 

Applegate has already announced plans to run for Issa’s seat in 2018.

Another California Republican, Rep. Ed Royce, also announced his retirement on Monday.  Buh- bye!

Issa joins a growing list of rats leaving the ship in advance of what we hope will be a blue wave in the 2018 midterms:

House Republicans are announcing they're leaving office at a significantly faster rate than any other recent Congresses, suggesting Democrats could pick up seats in the 2018 midterm elections. On Tuesday it was Pennsylvania Republican Bill Shuster, the influential chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. 

Already, at least 29 House Republicans have announced they are retiring, running for another office or resigning outright. They're leaving from all over the map, from southern New Jersey to southern New Mexico. (our emphasis)

These are professional pols; clearly they see what we're seeing in polling.

The Senate Intelligence Report on Benghazi

In today's once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle, David Ignatius writes about the recent Senate intelligence committee report on "Benghazi !":

The Senate intelligence committee made headlines this week by reporting that the 2012 attack in Benghazi was preventable. But frankly, we knew that. The deeper message of the bipartisan report was that Republicans in Congress wasted a year arguing about what turned out to be mostly phony issues.  [snip] 

The Republican tirades about Benghazi were unfortunate not just because they were based on erroneous speculation but also because they distracted policymakers from the real challenge of framing coherent policy in the Middle East. Sometimes, it seemed as if Benghazi finger-pointing was the only issue that leading Republicans cared about. 

In between the selected paragraphs above, Ignatius indicates how the (bi-partisan) Senate report refuted more than a year's worth of Republican witch-hunting and character assassination, led by the execrable Rep. Darrell "Grand Theft Auto" Issa (R-Arson).   What Ignatius omits is the "why," i.e., the real issue "leading Republicans cared about."   Let's fill in that blank for him in two words:  Hillary Clinton.

The minute Barack Obama became a lame duck President, Republicans shifted their strategic focus to roughing up the strongest Democratic contender for 2016:  Hillary Clinton.  It must have scared the bejezus out of Fox "News" (GOP-TV) that Clinton was leading every potential Republican contender by double digits, hence their drumbeat of "coverup!" that began the year-long obsession:

Driving the Republican jihad was a claim, first reported in October 2012 by Fox News, that CIA personnel had wanted to respond more quickly to the Benghazi attack but were ordered to “stand down,” perhaps by political higher-ups. Although this claim was promptly rebutted by CIA officials, it was repeated by Fox News at least 85 times, according to a review by the liberal advocacy group Media Matters. This barrage fueled Republican charges that the Democrats were engaging in a coverup.

They might need to manufacture a new diversion, though, because Hillary's lead over her closest Republican rival, once-Great White Whale Hope Gov. Chris "Krispykreme" Christie, is back to double digits.

Cartoon of the Day - A Rat Named Issa Edition

(click to enlarge)

A pack rat?

(Mike Luckovich, via gocomics.com)

"Mr. Grand Theft Auto" Issa

Former Obama advisor David Plouffe took some 600 grit sandpaper to California Rethug Rep. Darrell "GTA" Issa's posterior, after Issa called White House spokesman Jay Carney a "paid liar" on CNN's "State of the Union" this past weekend:

Issa, of course, is the chief inquisitor sleazeball entrusted with investigatin' those jackbooted IRS criminals who have been taking orders from the Kenyan in the White House, as we're sure Mr. Grand Theft Auto will make up  insinuate  prove.

BONUS:  BooMan wraps it up nicely:

His business partner thought he lit their building on fire and Issa blamed his brother for the car thefts. One of the things I like about David Plouffe is that he doesn't let stuff like that go. If Issa wants to make unfounded accusations about the administration then he's going to get brushed back. It's my understanding that Mr. Issa is the richest member of Congress, more wealthy even than Secretary of State John Kerry, the heir to the Heinz ketchup fortune. He made his money with those annoying "please step away from the car" alarms. I guess it takes a thief to deter a thief.   (our emphasis)