IRS Hearing Goes Off the Rails After Issa Lectures Dem on Committee Rules

IRS Hearing Goes Off the Rails After Issa Lectures Dem on Committee Rules (Mediaite)

The House committee hearing on the IRS controversy tonight took a crazy detour when Chairman Darrell Issa briefly halted proceedings to lecture a Democrat on the committee during the questioning of IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.

It started when Republican Mike Turner got into a short, heated exchange with Koskinen, accusing the commissioner of lacking personal integrity because he won’t call the FBI to get involved in the investigation over the missing e-mails. But that was just the preface to the real fight, which kicked off when Democrat John Tierney tried to give Koskinen a break by taking a shot at the “disrespect” Republican members had been affording him.

Issa briefly suspended the hearing to lecture Tierney, saying, “I would caution all members not to characterize the intent or the character of your fellow members here on the dais.”