Free Republic

Darrell Issa has been waging an under-the-radar campaign to save the Postal Service for years now. The most recent iteration of his plan, the Postal Reform Act, would save $17 billion over the next ten years for the USPS. The major changes would be giving the USPS the ability to eliminate Saturday delivery and encouraging curbside rather than doorstep drop-offs. Additionally, it would eliminate what the postal workers' union has claimed is the major deficit on the USPS budget: a requirement that the USPS pre-fund retirement benefits to the tune of over $6 billion per year. In both eliminating the...

White House spokesman Jay Carney on Thursday continued to blame Republicans for trying to “politicize” Benghazi, repeating the claim that the newly declassified e-mail sent by Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes on Sept. 14, 2012 had nothing to do with the attacks on the U.S. consulate. “When Darrell Issa gets up and says what he said today, I don’t know, you guys be the judge,” Carney said in response to a reporter challenging Carney’s assertion that the congressional investigation into the Benghazi attacks was politically motivated. …

Via the Daily Caller, the exciting — I mean it! — conclusion to this weekend’s mystery about whether Lerner was thinking of testifying after all. Answer: Nope. She refused again, which I guess settles the question of whether she inadvertently waived her Fifth Amendment privilege last year by delivering an opening statement before Issa’s committee before suddenly clamming up. At the time, Issa thought that statement constituted a waiver; so did Alan Dershowitz. Maybe the committee decided it wasn’t worth their time litigating the issue. Riddle me this, though: Why don’t they just agree to grant her immunity for her...

Appearing in front of the House Oversight Committee Wednesday morning Lois Lerner, former head of tax exempt groups at the IRS, refused to answer questions asked by lawmakers by pleading the Fifth Amendment. Earlier this week, Lerner's attorney William Taylor confirmed to Committee members in an email that she would testify. Lerner was issued a subpoena last summer after admitting the IRS singled out conservative groups for extra scrutiny. "On the advice of my counsel I respectfully exercise my fifth amendment right and decline to answer that question," Lerner said. Last year, Lerner was called to testify in front of...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: There were fireworks yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, in Washington. Darrell Issa's committee, House Judiciary Committee, they had Eric Holder up, and they're talking about Fast and Furious. And this is one of the exchanges between Issa and Holder. ISSA: I want to ask you, first of all, today, have you and your attorneys produced internally the materials responsive to the subpoenas? HOLDER: We believe that we have responded to the subpoena -- ISSA: No, Mr. Attorney General, you're not a good witness. A good witness answers the question asked. So let's go back again. Have you and...

Over the last few days, since Romney clinched the GOP nomination for President by going over the 1,144 committed delegates needed with his win in the Texas Primary on Tuesday, May 29, 2012, a number of new endorsements have come in for Romney's bid for the Presidency. These include George Shultz, former Secretary of State; Condoliza Rice, former Secretrary of State and National Security Advisor; Mike Huckabee, former Governor of Arkansas and presidential candidate; and Nancy Reagan, wife of President Ronald Reagan. Here's what each of them had to say on the date they endorsed Romney: NANCY REAGAN endorses Mitt...

GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney applauded House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley for their efforts to investigate the Obama Justice Department’s lethal Operation Fast and Furious scandal today during a speech at the NRA Annual Meeting Leadership Forum in St. Louis. This is the first time any GOP presidential candidate has mentioned the Fast and Furious scandal by name in a public event speech, officially bringing the scandal into the 2012 general election with President Barack Obama. Romney also embraced the NRA’s calls for Attorney General Eric Holder to resign or be fired for his...

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is slowly but surely becoming an albatross around the neck of this administration and there doesn’t seem to be any quick fix to the problem. Ever since they opened up their assault on Boeing back in April the board has been drawing fire from all sides. And now, apparently tired of the foot dragging and obstructionist tactics being employed, Darrel Issa has let the NLRB know that it’s time to put up or shut up. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has subpoenaed the National Labor Relations Board for documents...

Elizabeth Warren will exit the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before it officially launches, according to a single-sourced Bloomberg report last night. According to an unnamed “briefed” person, Obama will dump the controversial Warren for someone already working at the CFPB, and the announcement will come next week: Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard professor, was appointed last fall by Obama to set up the consumer bureau until a director was named. Warren previously was head of the congressional watchdog panel overseeing the bank bailout. This was one of those “temporary” assignments that an administration would eventually make permanent. Warren, however, became a...

Operation Fast & Furious Hearing:Obama Justice Dept. Obstructing Justice/Contempt They are Swearing In: Shown on C-Span 3 NOW. WATCH LIVE

The new leaders in the U.S. house may open official investigations into the New Black Panthers case and President Obama’s job offer to Joe Sestak. On the day after the GOP took control of the House, two Republican leaders openly critical of Obama will have subpoena power as the heads of two powerful House committees. Lamar Smith of Texas will oversee the House judiciary committee and Darrel Issa of California will chair the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Both men have been critical of the Justice Department’s handling of the New Black Panthers voter intimidation case in Philadelphia, and...

Leadership: The president says he went to the Gulf to find out whose derriere to kick. After he gets his foot out of his own mouth, perhaps he can talk to us about that Coast Guard memo. Scapegoating has become a hallmark of this administration. Certainly BP was responsible for the safe operation and maintenance of Deepwater Horizon. But after an accident in federal waters the federal government, which has a plan to save the entire planet from greenhouse gases, had no plan to save the Gulf from a single gushing well, with the possible exception of finger-pointing. In this...

Security sources report abrupt withdrawal of all Syrian commands in Lebanon including key military intelligence chief General Ghazaleh.Lebanese secret service chief General Raymond Azar flees to Paris. Internal Security Forces head General Ali al-Hajj about to quit.New response scenarios may be cooked up by opposition leader Jumblatt, Assistant Secretary of State Satterfield and US Congressman of Lebanese decent Darrel Issa (R-Vista, San Diego County)Assad secretly deploys joint Iranian-Syrain units.