Rep. Issa: 'Two and a Half Men' winning with Ashton Kutcher

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) had high praise for actor Ashton Kutcher on Wednesday, comparing his challenge in replacing Charlie Sheen on the CBS sitcom “Two and a Half Men” to that of actors who have played iconic spy character James Bond.

Issa answered a user-submitted question on the social syndication website Reddit asking whether the show could survive the replacement of one of its stars.

“Yes it has been a successful transition. Despite of Sheen’s great talent on the set, his life-style off the screen ultimately caught up to him,” Issa wrote in response. “I look froward [sic] to Ashton having a long and equally complex character, because of his fine acting and of course the writing that transcends both stars.”

He referred to the long-running James Bond series when he added, “I liken this to the transition [sic] that have occurred from Sean Connery all the way to Daniel Craig.” 

The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, a self-described “techie,” invited his social media followers to ask him questions in a Reddit-hosted online chat and answered a range from the serious to the more comedic.

He took advantage of the forum to discuss his use of technology to improve the legislative system. Issa reminded users of his support for the KeepTheWeb#Open campaign, which is dedicated to stopping the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA).

“I recently launched the first-ever Congressional crowdsourced legislative platform called Madison. I put Madison up on KeeptheWebOPEN.com to give all American and Internet users the opportunity to read, comment on and ultimately improve Internet piracy legislation,” he said. “Today, we have SOPA, PIPA, my own bill the OPEN [Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade] Act, and now the ACTA [Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement] treaty online for your review. I’m proud to report that last month, I included user-generated improvements to six sections of my OPEN Act.”

While voicing his support for Internet freedom, Issa condemned Wikileaks, which he said “serves no legitimate purpose” by leaking sometimes sensitive information to an unauthorized audience.

“I support free speech at all levels almost to the absolute extreme,” he said. “But I think Wikileaks was over the line ... they didn’t live up to the responsibility of being true whistleblowers.”

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