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.
