Why does Issa supposedly have this "oh he's a real shark" reputation? I haven't seen him accomplish anything with these pointless hearings. If people aren't getting dragged into a 6x10 cell as a result of these hearings, then it's all just a bunch of nothing.
You know, all it would really take is dropping the hammer on one or two of these bureaucrats (like Lerner), threatening them with the very real possibility of prison, and they'd break discipline. They'd start rolling over on the higher ups who ordered and managed their activities, instead of this wall of silence routine.
Isn't there an old military axiom, maybe even all the way back to Sun Tzu, that says you never threaten something you aren't prepared and able to carry out, because if it becomes apparent that your threats are impotent then your enemies will multiply? It's true, because when the GOP does this hamfisted public theater they only turn their own base into enemies, because it becomes apparent to us that they're going through the whole charade just to placate us and keep us on the reservation, but with no intention of actual consequences.
