Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA)
Tuesday's House Oversight Committee hearing with Obamacare consultant Jonathan Gruber was one of Darrell Issa's last hearings as committee chair, so naturally he made it count, with an extra helping of his usual grandstanding. Issa opened by haranguing Gruber about
whether he is stupid:
"I've been accused that I'm going to berate you or something and I hope it won't feel that way when I get done. But the night before last I was at the Kennedy Center honors where they honored Tom Hanks, who famously portrayed Forrest Gump. The ultimate successful stupid man," Issa said before getting to his first question for Gruber. "Are you stupid?"
Issa's question was a reference to the comments that brought Gruber to notice, in which he
referred to "the stupidity of the American voter." But mostly, Issa was mugging for Fox News, which was predictably in orgasms over the hearing.
For his part,
Gruber repeatedly apologized, saying his remarks were "glib," "insensitive" and "downright insulting."
He also
pointed out that his role in shaping Obamacare was not all that Republicans are cracking it up to be:
“I was not the architect of President Obama’s healthcare plan,” Gruber told the House Oversight Committee. “I ran microsimulation models to help those in the state and federal executive and legislative branches better assess the likely outcomes of various policy choices.”
Yeah, but "consultant who ran microsimulation models" doesn't sound as sexy as "architect."
In short, there could never be much substance to a hearing featuring a guy being raked over the coals for his ill-advised comments on the political aspects of a law he had no role in shaping the politics of, a law on which he had only been a technical consultant. But Darrell Issa and Co. needed their chance to get some "look, we attacked Obamacare" points with the Republican base before heading home for the long holiday break, so here we are.