Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the ranking member on the Government Oversight Committee, has written White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel requesting information about whether Emanuel coordinated a political multi-agency response to Republican criticisms of the stimulus.
Specifically, the question is whether he put four cabinet secretaries up to writing bullying letters to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, R. The letters asked whether Arizona wanted its stimulus funds cut off, shortly after Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., suggested repealing the stimulus package. In this Politico story by Jonathan Martin, two administration officials have confirmed Emanuel's involvement in demanding that the secretaries write the letters.[A]fter seeing [Sen. Jon] Kyl [R-Ariz.] and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) again paint the legislation as a failure on Sunday talk shows, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel directed that the letters from the Cabinet secretaries be sent to Brewer, according to two administration officials. If this is true, then Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood lied to Congress two weeks ago, during testimony before the House Budget Committee. LaHood, who wrote one of the letters to Brewer, had to be asked seven times in a July 24 budget hearing whether anyone in the White House had encouraged him or put him up to writing Brewer.
Unsatisfied with LaHood's evasive and repeated answer that he "needed no encouragement" to write the letter, Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., finally complained to the chairman: "Mr. Chairman, would the witness please answer the question?" (The committee's audio and video are of poor quality, but you can hear the whole exchange between Garrett and LaHood here.
LaHood, a former Republican congressman from Illinois, finally answered "No." But if Martin's reporting is correct, then LaHood was lying.
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