Darrell Issa

State Department officials testifying at a House hearing on Wednesday recounted the events that led to U.S. ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens's death in an attack on a diplomatic compound in Benghazi last year. Foreign Service officer Gregory Hicks claimed that former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and her staff did not do enough to protect the compound: A team of Special Operations troops that had been assigned to the embassy in [Tripoli] in 2011 to provide security was...

After two years of feverishly chasing any hint or suggestion of wrongdoing by the Obama administration, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) may finally be having his moment. Issa, the chief congressional watchdog over the White House, has the administration squarely on the defensive on two of the most politically explosive events of the moment: last year's deadly attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, and the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status in the...

Republican lawmakers, who have spent months seeking to tie President Obama to last year's deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, are increasingly focusing their probe on a new target: former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton. The GOP-led investigation of the Sept. 11, 2012, assaults that killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three others now centers heavily on the State Department and whether officials there deliberately misled the public about the nature of the assault.

A frustrated President Obama said Monday that the Republican focus on the administration's response to last year's fatal attacks in Benghazi, Libya, is a "sideshow" with obvious partisan motives. "There's no ‘there' there," Obama said in response to the ongoing criticism of the administration's initial public response to the assault. Last week, edited versions surfaced of the administration's talking points for congressional leaders and other officials shortly after the attacks, which killed four...

The historic significance of the day was not lost on the congregation that packed St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Foggy Bottom two Sundays ago. People from across the region gathered to celebrate the anniversary of a church founded 145 years ago . They also had come to hear the morning's prized speaker: the 82nd attorney general of the United States, and the first African American, Eric H. Holder Jr. St. Mary's, the church my wife,...

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) secured a $245,000 earmark in 2008 and another for $570,000 in 2009 to widen West Vista Way, in Vista, Calif. The congestion-relief project is less than a mile from a medical building that Issa purchased for $16.6 million in 2009 and it is the main road motorists use to get to the facility. Issa's office said the congressman sold the property on Jan. 19, 2012, for $15 million. Several media sources have run stories about these earmarks, including a March 30,...

After two years of feverishly chasing any hint or suggestion of wrongdoing by the Obama administration, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) may finally be having his moment. Issa, the chief congressional watchdog over the White House, has the administration squarely on the defensive on two of the most politically explosive events of the moment: last year's deadly attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, and the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status in the...

Who watches the watchers? That existential question is not one that Republican Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.), the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, had hoped to be asking himself just a few months into his job as the self-declared lead investigator of the Obama administration. But that was before a young Issa press aide named Kurt Bardella agreed to share private correspondence between himself and reporters covering his boss with New York Times...

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Yet, when it comes to the Internet, there are plenty of politicians who believe something is broken. Suffice it to say, the majority of active Internet users — especially those that frequent community news sharing site Reddit — wholeheartedly disagree. With this in mind, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has introduced a new piece of legislation yesterday that, if signed into law, would prevent other politicians from passing laws or regulations...

A chief congressional critic of Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. declined Friday to join Republican calls for Holder's resignation over the Operation Fast and Furious gun-trafficking sting, saying the operation's failures were "not about any one person. " Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) had told Holder in an Oct. 10 letter: "You own Fast and Furious. It is your responsibility. " Numerous other Republicans have urged Holder to resign over the...

A House of Representatives committee held a hearing on Wednesday on the events surrounding the death of J. Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, in an attack on a diplomatic compound in Benghazi in September. For more on the hearing, read the Post's coverage here . The Washington Post's opinion writers have been arguing fiercely about whether the hearing revealed problems at the State Department under the leadership of former Secretary Hillary Clinton, or whether it was mere political theater.

Those who are trying to make the Benghazi tragedy into a scandal for the Obama administration really ought to decide what story line they want to sell. Actually, by "those" I mean Republicans, and by "the Obama administration" I mean Hillary Clinton. The only coherent purpose I can discern in all of this is to sully Clinton's record as secretary of state in case she runs for president in 2016. That's not a particularly noble way to use the deaths of four American public servants, but at least it's understandable.

State Department officials testifying at a House hearing on Wednesday recounted the events that led to U.S. ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens's death in an attack on a diplomatic compound in Benghazi last year. Foreign Service officer Gregory Hicks claimed that former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and her staff did not do enough to protect the compound: A team of Special Operations troops that had been assigned to the embassy in [Tripoli] in 2011 to provide...

They summoned a whistleblower to Capitol Hill , but instead they got a virtuoso storyteller. Gregory Hicks , the No. 2 U.S. diplomat in Libya the night Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed, was to be the star witness for Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the man leading the probe of the Obama administration's handling of the attack on the diplomatic outpost in Benghazi. But despite Issa's incautious promise that the hearing's revelations would be "damaging" to...

Republican lawmakers, who have spent months seeking to tie President Obama to last year's deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, are increasingly focusing their probe on a new target: former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton. The GOP-led investigation of the Sept. 11, 2012, assaults that killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three others now centers heavily on the State Department and whether officials there deliberately misled the public about the nature of...

HIGHLIGHTS Saturday night, "Cops" (Fox at 8) wraps up Season 25 as police in Las Vegas struggle with suspects. The two musicals on "Smash" (NBC at 8), "Bombshell" and "Hit List," wind up being connected in a surprising way. Zach Galifianakis hosts "Saturday Night Live" (NBC at 11:30), with musical guest Of Monsters and Men. Sunday talk shows: "Platts Energy Week" (WUSA at 7:30 a.m.) interviews Continental Resources' Rick Bott and Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.)

Mayor Vincent C. Gray wasn't sure that any of the members of Congress he invited to his suite at Verizon Center for a hockey game would show up. He had reached out to members who he thought needed to know more about the city as well as Rep. Darrell Issa , the California Republican who heads the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has jurisdiction over the District. To Gray's surprise, Issa walked in. Pleasantries were exchanged, and as guests nibbled on peanuts and fajitas,...

When House Republicans called a hearing in the middle of their long recess, you knew it would be something big, and indeed it was: They accidentally blew the CIA's cover. The purpose of Wednesday's hearing of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee was to examine security lapses that led to the killing in Benghazi last month of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three others. But in doing so, the lawmakers reminded us why "congressional intelligence" is an oxymoron. Through their outbursts, cryptic language and boneheaded...

Howard Kurtz, a prominent news- media critic, became news himself on Thursday. The CNN host and former Washington Post reporter parted ways with the Daily Beast and Newsweek, his primary employer, a day after stirring controversy with a flawed commentary about Jason Collins , the NBA player who recently disclosed that he is gay. The reasons for the departure are in dispute, however. People familiar with both sides — media people ironically speaking anonymously about other media people —...

The District's voters overwhelmingly approved a charter amendment to secure budget autonomy from Congress . Now they wait to see if they will actually get it. In Tuesday's special election , 83 percent of voters supported the measure, which would give the District a modicum of new spending freedom, allowing the city to set its own fiscal year and to operate services normally in the event of a federal government shutdown. Now the measure goes to Capitol Hill, where it must weather a congressional...