Congressman Suggests Issa Install Pool to Root Out Suspected Witches

Rep. Tony Cardenas took the increasing sniping between Democrats and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa to new and more sarcastic heights on Friday, sending out a press release calling on the chairman to install a pool in the committee's hearing room.

"... It is clearly obvious that witches can only be found by dunking them in water," Cardenas wrote in a press release directed at Issa on Friday. "If they float they're a witch. If they don't, installing a pool will allow us to retrieve the non-witch before he or she drowns."

Further ribbing Issa, Cardenas went on to suggest that the pool be christened the "Senator Joseph R. McCarthy Memorial Truth Pond."

For years, Democrats have been accusing Issa of using his chairmanship to conduct "witch hunts" against administration officials. But the rhetoric on both sides has grown nastier in recent months as Issa has subpoenaed IRS Commissioner Lois Lerner and, most recently, David Simas, the director of the White House's Office of Political Strategy. The bickering hit a high point in March when Issa cut off ranking member Elijah Cummings's microphone at the end of a hearing with Lerner, forcing the Maryland Democrat to shout in order to criticize the chairman's handling of the investigation.

Given the escalation, perhaps a scene similar to the one below would not completely out of place in the Oversight Committee hearing room.

Although Cardenas on Friday took Democrats' rhetoric on Issa's chairmanship to its most absurd level yet, he did kindly offer to allow staffers and members to use the pool recreationally when it's not in use by the committee.

(Image via Andrey Armyagov/Shutterstock.com)