Is this compassionate conservatism?

Will Issa lose his seat over this? He certainly should.

He spent Wednesday running for cover after outraging Democrats and republicans alike with his crass remarks that the United States had done plenty to help New York recover from a "fire" that was the result of a "plane crash" at the WTC.

"That is a pretty distorted view of things," said Frank Fraone, a Menlo Park, Calif., fire chief who led a 67-man crew at Ground Zero. "Whether they're a couple of planes or a couple of missiles, they still did the same damage."

"New York was attacked by Al Qaeda. It doesn't have to be attacked by Congress," added Long Island Rep. Pete King, a Republican.

"I'm really surprised by Darrell Issa," King added. "It showed such a cavalier dismissal of what happened to New York. It's wrong and inexcusable."

Lorie Van Aucken, who lost her husband, Kenneth, in the attacks, slammed Issa's "cruel and heartless" comments.

"It's really discouraging. People stepped up and did the right thing. They sacrificed themselves and now a lot of people are getting really horrible illnesses," she added.

Issa is no stranger to hypocrisy. He is the former teenage punk who clouted cars and got busted; then as an adult got rich selling car alarms to law abiding citizens to protect themselves from people like him.

He didn't get away with his shenanigans this time, though. He got called out from every quarter, and made with backpeddling like there was no (political) tomorrow. He issued a statement in which he said "I continue to support federal assistance for the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks," and floated the meme that he only "asked tough questions about expenditures."

He can spin it any way he wants, but he is still avoiding the press because he's a chickenshit little bitch. New York members of the congressional delegation, meantime, were quick to get in his face.

"He realized he stepped in it," said Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-Manhattan), who was chairing the hearing when Issa opened his mouth and let idiocy tumble forth.

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn-Queens), true to the boroughs he represents, was a little more mocking and derogatory than his refined Manhattanite counterpart with his comments "The sound I'm hearing is him slamming the brakes and going in reverse."

Whoops!

IOKIYAR doesn't apply to Roger Clemens, I guess:

WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI has opened an investigation into whether baseball great Roger Clemens lied to Congress when he denied taking steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs.
Law enforcement officials say the inquiry will focus on whether Clemens or his former personal trainer Brian McNamee (MAC-nah-mee) lied when they testified under oath about the use of steroids.

In testimony Feb 13 , Clemens told Congress he never used either drug. McNamee testified that he injected the seven-time Cy Young Award winner with steroids and human growth hormone at least 16 times from 1998 to 2001.

The FBI inquiry was prompted by a request Thursday from the House Oversight Committee, which singled out statements by Clemens as possibly false.

Despite the shameful efforts of people like Darrell Issa and Dan Burton and Chris Shays to help Clemens out of a jam, the jam turned out to be the capper on a career that would have been a lock for the Hall of Fame. Would have been. As Chairman Waxman explained, now is not your time to argue with me on this.

If you're gonna ban Pete Rose for gambling, you have to ban anyone convicted of lying to Federal investigators about steroids because it's cheating to gain an unfair advantage. A gambler who can choose which player plays in a close game is cheating and a player who juices up is cheating as well. I support a lifetime ban, which means that said players can enter the Hall of Fame posthumously.

But with one of these babies: "*"

[Now if we can get a Justice Department willing to investigate high crimes and misdemeanors, we'll be in business.]