Remember this?

"[M]aybe Newt Gingrich & Co. will someday be as earnest about private sector oversight as they are about embarrassing the administration. But it's hard to believe that, since Gingrich told lobbyists before the election that he intended to establish a select committee on corruption to investigate the Clinton administration. 'Washington just can't imagine a world in which Republicans would have subpoena power,' he said. It can now. But so far, Republican scrutiny has been about embarrassment more than enlightenment." -- Gloria Borger, 7/31/95

Keep in mind, Borger wrote that before Dan Burton's clown-show of an investigation repeatedly issued subpoenas to the wrong people and before the Republican House of Representatives impeached a president for having an affair.

Now, Republican Rep. Darrell Issa wants to make clear that if you liked the Republican investigations of the White House cat, the armed assault on vegetable gardens Dan Burton waged in a delusional attempt to disprove Vince Foster's suicide, the endless distractions and wasted money of partisan investigations of non-scandals, you'll love what the GOP has in store for Barack Obama if they win control of Congress:

Rep. Darrell Issa, the conservative firebrand whose specialty is lobbing corruption allegations at the Obama White House, is making plans to hire dozens of subpoena-wielding investigators if Republicans win the House this fall. The California Republican’s daily denunciations draw cheers from partisans and bookings from cable TV producers. He even bought his own earphone for live shots. But his bombastic style and attention-seeking investigations draw eye rolls from other quarters. Now, he’s making clear he won’t be so easy to shrug off if he becomes chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in 2011. ... Issa has told Republican leadership that if he becomes chairman, he wants to roughly double his staff from 40 to between 70 and 80. And he is not subtle about what that means for President Barack Obama. At a recent speech to Pennsylvania Republicans here, he boasted about what would happen if the GOP wins 39 seats, and he gets the power to subpoena. “That will make all the difference in the world,” he told 400 applauding party members during a dinner at the chocolate-themed Hershey Lodge. “I won’t use it to have corporate America live in fear that we’re going to subpoena everything. I will use it to get the very information that today the White House is either shredding or not producing.” In other words, Issa wants to be to the Obama administration what Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) was to the Clinton administration — a subpoena machine in search of White House scandals.

Assuring the BPs and Blackwaters of the world that they won't be the target of GOP investigations is a nice touch, isn't it? Good to know Issa's focus will be on the things that really matter -- like whether someone offered a 30-year Navy vet a job.