I"m sure he would. Unfortunately, that's not the order in which those two items typically come:
House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa says he's willing to consider immunity for former IRS official Lois Lerner, but he wants to know what she plans to say first.
"If she were willing to proffer through her attorney that she would tell us something meaningful, disclose how these crimes were committed, how they sought to and who sought to go after conservative groups because of their values, then we could, and I would … have a vote to grant her immunity," Issa said Tuesday on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor."
If, if, if. If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. If I had a Star Trek replicator, all my material problems would be over. If either of our two kitties looked like Grumpy Cat, I could voluntarily retire. If I had a Star Trek holosuite with a Jessica Alba program, you'd never see my fat ass again.
But here's what would happen. Right now, Lerner will just keep pleading the fifth like a parrot with Tourettes, and that's what prompted Chairman Issa to cut short the last hearing at which she "testified". If he grants Lerner immunity, she will resume claiming that she's "innocent and misunderstood". He could refer additional criminal charges to the Injustice & Revenge Commissariat atop the four he has already, but those referrals would go to Attorney General Eric "The Red" Holder, who will bury them. Consequently, Lerner has zero fear of criminal prosecution for the risible lies she continues to spin, and thus Chairman Issa has no leverage over her.
House Republicans are, in a word, powerless.
Yes, yes, I know, Congress does have the constitutional authority to impeach and remove from office Executive Branch officials. The House could file articles of impeachment against whomever they want - John Koskinen all the way up to The One himself - all the live long day. But at the present time, they have no power to compel Harry Reid to hold a Senate trial. Even if they did, there'd never be two-thirds or more support for conviction (Think Democrats in and out of the media wouldn't be willing to full-throatedly defend the IRS? Or, more likely and effectively, demonize Republicans for impeaching whomever in the first place? It'd be Shutdowngeddon all over again). And even if the process did get that far, Congress wouldn't have the power - the legal authority, yes, but not the power - to force any Executive Branch official's departure. O would just sign an executive decree of reinstatement, flip off congressional Republicans, and go play his 7,382nd round of golf.
This is why no scandal - not Benghazigate, not IRSgate, not all the various and sundry, unprecedentedly vile abuses of power - will ever damage Barack Obama in the slightest. He exists and rules completely above and outside of the law, and thus no legal, constitutional means of discipline and accountability can restrain, much less topple, him. The only other possible means of coercing the 44th POTUS would be politically, but (1) he'll never face another election, no matter how rigged, and (2) even if he did, the media would still protect and extol him.
As Thomas Sowell wrote yesterday, Barack Obama isn't a "lame-duck president"; America is a lame-duck country.
Darrell Issa knows all of this. It's why he hasn't offered Lois Lerner immunity. He and his committee would just get double-crossed and screwed. Again. One more episode in the ongoing mockery of justice for which sixty-two million Americans twice knowingly voted.
I would advise Chairman Issa, all House Republicans, all Senate Republicans, all Republicans and conservatives and Tea Partiers everywhere to pace their frustration and spluttering anger. Because the worst is unquestionably still to come.
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