CA Rep Darrell Issa: 'Obama Has to Pick His Fights Carefully'

SAN DIEGO, California — Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) ushered in his expected victory at the U.S. Grant Hotel in San Diego with a warning for the State of California and a preview of how the Republican Party can expect to function over the next two years under President Obama in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News.

“President Obama has a difficult decision to make,” Issa said, noting that over the course of the next two years, the president will need to decide whether or not he wants to work with Republicans following the first time in six years that they’ve held a majority in the Senate. “He’s going to have to pick his fights carefully.” 

For years, Obama complained of a do-nothing Congress “when in fact there was a Senate that stopped House initiatives. There are more than 180 bills that were broadly bipartisan — some of them unanimous — that have never gotten a hearing or [been] marked up in the Senate… Now the question is, will he take his veto pen out and veto things which are bipartisan and broadly accepted by the American people?” Issa posited. 

Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who is well-positioned to assume majority leader status, during his victory party in his home state Tuesday night said, “Some things don’t change after tonight. I don’t expect the president to wake up tomorrow and view the world any differently than he did when he woke up this morning. He knows I won’t, either.”

Republicans have complained that Obama has abused his veto power. Issa said that this time around Republicans will likely expose this more greatly by sending the president legislation that he will be in a position to sign. Otherwise, he will risk showing that “he is out of step with the American people.”

Despite a Republican victory nationwide, California’s Republican Party experienced a statewide upset. Issa conceded that the Golden State would likely turn Republican again, only when it is too late. 

Paraphrasing a quote from former English Prime Minister Winston Churchill, famously known for his wicked wit, Issa said, “Americans always do the right thing when they’ve exhausted all other alternatives.” Similarly, he noted that, while Californians “often vote for initiatives that are very good,” that same logic has not been applied in recent days.

Lately they’ve been voting for a party that has, in fact, been taking the state into bankruptcy. I suppose that they will vote for Republicans when they run out of options that have failed with Democratic leadership, that has raised our taxes, and failed to contain the growth of government here in the state.

California has lost a great deal of business to the deeply red state of Texas, under the leadership of Governor Rick Perry, due to the Lone Star State’s business-friendly atmosphere and tax policies.

I suspect Rick Perry will be long out of office before the people wake up and realize that the employers at all levels and at high paying jobs have been leaving this state for a long period of time and going to places… [like] Austin, Dallas [and] Houston. They’re going to state after state that is comparatively business friendly. The wake up call will come. But it won’t come until after additional erosion of our economy has occurred.