Darrell Issa (R-Goldman Sachs): Most of the time, when wealthy people are elected to office, they put their investments into a blind trust

Darrell Issa (R-Goldman Sachs)
Courage Campaign
Rick Jacobs

Most of the time, when wealthy people are elected to office, they put their investments into a blind trust to avoid conflicts of interest.

But Rep. Darrell Issa -- one of the richest people in America -- didn't do that. He still personally manages hundreds of millions of dollars, and it seems to drive a lot of his official decisions.

Tell Issa to focus on his full time job as a congressman, not on managing his money. Put your money in a blind trust or resign from Congress.

A new report finds that Darrell Issa hired a Goldman Sachs Vice President to run interference on new Wall Street regulations... but only after he changed his name. It's the latest in Issa's long string of conflicts of interest and corporate favoritism, a list that's gotten so long that the New York Times put the problem on the front page this week.

We already know that Issa-as-Chairman is bad news. He asked corporate lobbyists and industry groups to set his committee's agenda, cancelled a hearing when facts didn't fit his narrative, and still won't disclose what lobbyists he meets with. He's steered earmarks to fund improvements around his investment properties, and he's a big fan of South Carolina's taxpayer-funded $900 million corporate handout -- in exchange for the corporation's promise to cut employee wages and benefits.

Stop insulting your constituents and America. Stop spending your spare time looking for personal investment opportunities in his laws and Oversight investigations. The credibility of his committee -- and Issa himself -- requires that he move his money to blind trust now.

Issa has spent his entire life trying to play by special rules, and that hasn't changed just because he has more power now. This week, we've seen once again that so long as Issa is trying to legislate and turn a profit at the same time, he just isn't able to keep them separate. And that's a huge problem.

It's high time that Darrell Issa get focused on responsible oversight and assure us that he isn't still trying to work angles for his own benefit.