You know whose first days as chairman of the House Oversight Committee didn’t involve having to fire a high-profile staffer? Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), who ran the committee from 2007 through 2009.
I caught up with Waxman in the Speaker’s Lobby during a House vote on short-term spending Tuesday afternoon and asked him to weigh in on his heir Darrell Issa, who’s had tougher luck.
“He’s not gotten off to a good start,” Waxman said, “and he’s got to figure out how to make corrections in his own operation.”
In the scheme of things, the loss of a spokesman won’t scatch Issa’s record as chairman too badly. But his critics are watching and, they’ll be happy rub salt in after every scrape.
Brian Beutler
Brian Beutler is TPM's senior congressional reporter. Since 2009, he's led coverage of health care reform, Wall Street reform, taxes, the GOP budget, the government shutdown fight, and the debt limit fight. He can be reached at brian@talkingpointsmemo.com.
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