From the Article: Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.), a member of House leadership, said Issa could have handled Wednesday’s hearing better, and suggested Republicans were frustrated that Issa had become the story, in lieu of the IRS.
Via The Hill
House Republicans were thrust onto the defensive Thursday as Democrats waged a multi-pronged attack against Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and his aggressive leadership style atop the House Oversight Committee.
Issa came under attack for killing the microphone on Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the panel’s senior Democrat, at the end of a heated hearing on political targeting at the Internal Revenue Service.
Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.), a member of House leadership, said Issa could have handled Wednesday’s hearing better, and suggested Republicans were frustrated that Issa had become the story, in lieu of the IRS.
“I think if you talked to the chairman, he would tell you he would handle it differently,” said Lankford, a member of the Oversight panel who’s running for the Senate this year.
Issa, who had defended his conduct, declined to address the issue in the Capitol on Thursday, rushing onto the House floor without a glance at the pack of reporters gathered at the chamber door.
GOP leaders have hoped to use their IRS probe as a bludgeon against President Obama and the Democrats in an extension of their campaign message that the administration abuses its authority for political ends.
But the silencing of Cummings turned the tables — at least temporarily — on Issa, one of the White House’s biggest critics.