It's my old bud, Barack, signing my bill! The one time he wasn't the most corrupt president ever!

As we've mentioned, rightwing moron and richest member of Congress Darrell Issa (R-That One Wingnut Part Of SoCal), who made a fortune selling car alarms after closing out his previous career as a car thief and arsonist, is in a very tough reelection fight against Doug Applegate, a Democrat who people really seem to like, possibly because he's not Darrell Issa.

How desperate is Issa to try to hold on to his House seat? How about sending out a campaign mailer proudly featuring a photo of Barack Obama signing something (maybe a bill Issa sponsored, but maybe not) and praising Obama for signing Issa's bill. Seems pretty desperate for a guy who called the Obama Administration the "most corrupt in history," we'd say. Also a guy who held endless hearings on the horrors of Obamacare (and systematically excluded people who'd been helped by it). A guy who blamed Barack Obama for the Republican shutdown of the government in 2013. So putting Obama's photo on a campaign mailer seems rather larcenous, you might say.

President Obama thinks this is rather weird, too, and at a fundraiser Sunday for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, asked Issa to kindly GTFO with that nonsense:

To be completely accurate, it was Doug Applegate's campaign spokesperson, Robert Dempsey, who said Issa was Trump before Trump. Please update your notes.

Obama also said Issa had always been cordial to him when they met during annual White House Christmas parties:

Obama said some GOP lawmakers tell him they're "praying for you" during the holiday party photo-line.

"I don't question the sincerity they are praying for me," Obama said, before mimicking their prayer: "Please change this man from the socialist Muslim."

"I'm sure it's more sincere than that," he conceded.

For his part, Issa seemed willing to apologize for the suggestion that he in any way approved of Barack Obama, apart from the one bill he signed. The San Diego Union Tribune reports Issa issued a statement saying,

I’m disappointed but not surprised that the president in a political speech continues to deny accountability for the serious scandals that happened under his watch where Americans died overseas and veterans have died here at home.

You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who thinks I’ve done too much to hold Washington accountable. I’ve worked with the administration on good legislation where it was possible, and called out wrongdoing wherever I saw it, and will continue to do so.

OK, that's more like the snarly asshole we've come to know and loathe. Maybe Issa can get that printed on the next round of mailers to remind voters he's a big fan of Donald Trump, not of the president. Or he could split the difference, and go for a hybrid feel that hits all the right notes: "I'm very pleased that President Obama, who continues to deny accountability for killing Americans, has signed into law the bill I sponsored. I look forward to working with President Trump to jail our political opponents."

It's a working draft, at least.

[HuffPo / CNN / Jennifer Epstein on Twitter / Union Tribune]