San Diego is My Home

04
Apr

Rep. Issa’s Big Goof

Author: HelenKay, Category: Emergency Situations, Neighborhoods, Politics

U.S. Representative Darrell Issa (Republican from Northern San Diego County) got himself in a bit of trouble this week.  During congressional hearings regarding additional benefits for the 9/11 victims, Rep. Issa described the World Trade Center attacks as:

“…a fire that had no dirty bomb in it, it had no chemical munitions in it. It simply was an aircraft, residue of two aircraft and residue of the material used to build this building.”

Yeah, that did not go over all that well.  Many viewed his comments as being dissmissive of the attacks.  He argues that he was merely questioning whether benefits should be extended to people who were not physically injured and who did not work at Ground Zero.   Some fellow Congressional folk did not accept the explanantion.  Rep. Issa has been called stupid, unpatriotic and insensitive.

Admittedly, his delivery needs work.  But questioning a blank check and wondering if the federal government is going to compensate anyone involved in similar terrorist attacks in the future is legitimate.   A reasoned discussion without namecalling might be the best way to come up with a solution to this difficult issue.  Have members of Congress forgotten how to do that?

For Rep. Issa’s part, talking about 9/11 in terms of ariplane residue is about as smart as setting his desk up in the middle of the 805 and trying to do work.  We’re talking about people killed in a terrorist attack.  Show some smarts when trying to raise a point that needs to be raised.

Politicians…