Rep. Darrell Issa, R-CA, has a message for White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel:
“While this type of scare tactic may work In Chicago, it will not work to intimidate me or other Members of the United States Congress.”
It’s not quite a young Ellot Ness glowering at Al Capone on the steps of a ritzy Chicago hotel, but it may be the next best thing and it could mark a turning point in President Obama’s relations with the Congress that is dominated by members of his own party.
The occasion for Issa’s comment, which was contained in a sizzling letter to Emanuel that the Republican released today to the media, was a report in Politico of White House retaliation against a Republican senator and governor who criticized the Obama economic stimulus package on weekend tv news programs.
According to Politico, Emanuel “launched a coordinated effort to jam” Sen. Jon Kyl, R-AZ, after he and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-VA, described “the legislation as a failure on Sunday talk shows.” The White House chief of staff “directed that the letters from the Cabinet secretaries be sent to [Arizona Gov.Jan] Brewer, according to two administration officials.” Kyl and Brewer subsequently protested.
“The fact that the letters were coordinated by you to maximize the level of intimidation is supported by the timing, structure, and content of each letter. Not only were the four letters all sent the day following Senator Kyl’s remarks, but they were also remarkably similar in tone and sentence structure,” Issa told Emanuel.
Issa, the ranking GOPer on the House Oersight and Government Reform Committee, said in his letter that he “and others have dared to bring these facts to the attention of President Obama, the Congress and the American people. You’ve unfortunately reacted by once again resorting to the playbook of the Chicago political machine.”
Emanuel and Issa served together in the House when the former represented a Chicago district and, as chairman of the House Democratic campagn committee, organized the party’s 2006 campaign that resulted in Republicans losing control of both chambers of Congress for the first time since 1995.
You can read the full Issa letter here.
