Republican Emerges as Obama’s Annoyer-in-Chief

By MARK LEIBOVICH
NYT

WASHINGTON — As a sign of the pride Representative Darrell Issa takes in annoying the Obama administration, consider his account of a recent exchange with Rahm Emanuel, a former congressman and now the White House chief of staff. In describing the episode — a chance encounter outside the House gym — Mr. Issa smirked and raised his middle finger.

“That’s the only thing Rahm did when he saw me,” Mr. Issa, a California Republican, boasted in an interview in his House office. He waved the unfriendly digit in the air like a trophy before folding it into a nub (to mimic Mr. Emanuel, who lost part of his finger in a long-ago meat-cutting accident). More annoying? Mr. Emanuel, through a spokeswoman, said the incident did not occur.

Every Congress seems to produce a designated pest, adept at drawing attention to nuisance issues (and his nuisance self) while making trouble for the other party when it controls the White House. Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, played that role during the Bush administration, while Representative Dan Burton, Republican of Indiana, did it before him in the Clinton years.

Now comes Mr. Issa, 57, who was charged with two long-ago auto thefts before eventually making a fortune selling car alarms; his signature product, the Viper, features his own deep voice ordering would-be burglars to “please step away from the car.” Mr. Issa’s voice has become inescapable, and not just among car thieves. He has been shouting forth on matters high-profile (the administration’s response to the BP oil spill) and obscure (a possible conflict involving a member of the National Labor Relations Board).

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