One of the myriad fears Democrats have about a Republican-controlled House in 2011 is the ability of pesky Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., to go wild with investigations into the Obama White House as he takes over the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Mr. Issa has taken vocal umbrage at the White House's job-er-unpaid-advisory-position offer to Joe Sestak, through President Bill Clinton, to get him out of the Democratic primary against Arlen Specter -- to the point that Issa lurked at Sestak's explanation of the episode on the steps of the Capitol in May so he could soak up the camera lights once Sestak was done.

As reported by The Hill, Issa told ABC that the job offers to Sestak -- and Colorado's Andrew Romanoff -- have happend in Democratic and Republican administrations, and the right course would be to make sure they don't happen again rather than dredge up old ones.

"We can't look at it retrospectively, but we can look at it prospectively" in trying to stop the practice in the future, he said on ABC's "Top Line" webcast. ...

As the Sestak story broke, Issa said it could be the President Obama's "Watergate," referring to the scandal that brought down President Nixon. After the White House issued its side of the story through its legal counsel, Republicans in Congress tried and failed to get more information about the offers.

Issa said as his panel looked into the incidents, he discovered presidents in both parties had done it. He called the practice "illegal" but said it had wrongly become a part of accepted political negotiations.

"When we were doing that investigation, we discovered the Bush administration had done that same thing by their own admission," he said, adding "I hope to work in a bipartisan basis to say that it has to stop."

No Clinton subpoenas? That's a damn shame.