Darrell Issa: If GOP wins House, corporate America can breathe easy -- UPDATED

As you know, Democrats are continuing to hammer away at Joe Barton's apology to BP, in order to make the case that if Republicans take back Congress, they'll side with big corporations and special interests against ordinary Americans.

But there's a quote from another House Republican that's largely gone unnoticed, even though it makes the case perhaps as well as Barton's BP apology does: GOP Rep. Darrell Issa effectively pledged that if Republicans take back the House, corporate America will be able to breathe easy.

The quote is buried in a Politico article about a recent speech Issa gave, in which he revealed he's planning to hire reams of subpoena-wielding investigators as chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee if Republicans take back the House:

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."

While that quote stops short of a full-fledged promise to never probe anything corporate America does, it's nonetheless an extraordinary statement: It sounds like a pledge to go easier on big corporations.

Dems plan to aggressively highlight this in the days ahead as an additional data-point in making the broader case against Republicans. "Instead of focusing on holding big corporations like British Petroleum accountable, if Issa and Republicans have their way, as Chairman Issa would use subpoenas and an eighty person staff to launch tax payer funded witch hunts against the President," DCCC spokesman Ryan Rudominer emails.



"Just as we saw with Joe Barton, Michele Bachmann, and the 114 member Republican Study Committee's shameless defense of British Petroleum, Republicans' governing philosophy is to ignore gross misconduct from Republicans' corporate special interest backers."

The jury is still very much out on whether the Barton mess will fundamentally transform the political dynamic in Dems's favor. Dems are hoping it helps change the subject from Obama's handling of the spill to the consequences of GOP gains in Congress -- an effort to get voters to see the fall elections as a choice, rather than just a referendum on Dems. They hope the Issa quote will help them do that.

UPDATE, 2:44 p.m.: Issa spokesman Kurt Bardella emails that Issa "never said he wouldn't subpoena corporations."

"For anyone to try and push a narrative that Issa, as a Chairman, wouldn't pursue legitimate investigations that involve any company defies an already established record," Bardella says. "This is the same guy who led the investigation into Toyota, going so far as getting their CEO to testify before his committee, has been calling out GM for their deceptive ads and shredding of docs, investigated AIG's counterparty payouts, investigated Countrywide's VIP mortgage loan program, opposed bailout of corporate America, opposed bailout of auto-dealers and is currently investigating Johnson & Johnson."

"All that Issa was talking about was not using his authority to go on fishing expeditions targeting corporate America as was the case under Waxman. Just look at Issa's record so far. He has been very aggressive investigating cases where there is evidence of something to investigate."

