As I pointed out in my Bad Year For Incumbents post, back in April of 2009, long-time RINO (Republican In Name Only) Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, reading the polls that showed him badly trailing former Representative Pat Toomey in the upcoming 2010 Republican primary, decided to switch political parties. Elected five times as a "Republican," and sensing certain defeat in that party's primary, Specter did what ANY career politician without a shred of decency would do -- in the fifth year of his fifth term as an elected Republican, he simply switched parties and became a Democrat.
His switch gave Obama a gift early in his Presidency -- the "Republican" Specter's party switch provided the 60th vote Obama needed to make the United States Senate "filibuster proof," at least until Scott Brown would be elected to the Senate from Massachusetts some nine months later.
The problem was that Democrat Congressional Representative Joe Sestak had already announced his intention of seeking the Democrat nomination for the Senate seat when Specter was still a Republican. Now that Specter was suddenly a Democrat, this presented a dilemma for the White House. The incentive to get Specter to switch parties (and give Obama that elusive 60th vote in the Senate) included the promise to quietly get Congressman Sestak to drop his bid for the Democrat nomination in the upcoming Senatorial race.
Compounding the problem -- Congressman Sestak wouldn't play along.
In an interview with Larry Kane on Comcast cable in Pennsylvania last February, and alluding to multiple sources revealing that the White House had been "dangling" a job in front of him -- as long as he would abandon his Senatorial aspirations -- Sestak was asked by Kane, "were you ever offered a federal job to get out of this race?"
Sestak's answer: "Yes."
He elaborated, "Let me just say that, both here in Pennsylvania and down there, I was called quite a few times. And all I said is, look, I felt when a deal was made, that it was hurting the democratic process. I got into this because I think that deal started getting us off the track where the Democratic Party should go. I would never get out for a deal."
After this, while acknowledging the veracity of his story in subsequent interviews and answering questions from reporters, and perhaps sensing that he had committed a major political faux pas, Sestak refused to expand upon his original reply to Kane.
It's been long-rumored/assumed that the "job" offered Sestak to entice him to abandon his Senate bid was either Secretary of the Navy -- probably a very good fit for Sestak, actually, as he is a retired Admiral, or Ambassador to Moscow, as he speaks Russian fluently.
The story remained on the back burner until Sestak defeated Specter in the Democrat primary last May 18. Then, it developed "legs" and moved front and center.
The original question, "what job was Sestak offered?" was joined by the question, "who offered it?" and, ultimately joined by the question, "what did Obama know, and when did he know it?"
It didn't help that White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stonewalled for months when asked at press briefings about Sestak and "the job offer." As the story became a bigger deal in the wake of Sestak's primary victory, the statements out of the White House grew more and more opaque -- as Gibbs insisted just last weekend that "nothing inappropriate happened" but refused to engage in the more basic "what happened question."
Obama held his first press conference in over 300 days earlier this week and, unfortunately for him, the last question he took turned out to be about Sestak issue.
Obama's haltingly-delivered response -- ""I can assure the public that nothing improper took place. But as I said, there will be a response shortly on that issue."
Then, the White House spin doctors went into overdrive, with White House counsel (Obama's attorney), Bob Bauer (NO relation to Jack... ) assuming the role of "main man." Bauer is the husband of former White House Communications Director (and Mao Tse-Tung admirer), Anita Dunn.
Sestak disclosed Thursday that White House officials contacted his brother in preparation for a response to allegations that Sestak was offered a job in the Obama administration as an enticement not to challenge incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter.
Once all of the players seemingly got their stories straight, "news" was released late Friday (Fridays are notoriously known as "document drop" days -- ESPECIALLY Fridays preceding long holiday weekends...) that Obama advisor Rahm Emanuel had contacted HIS old boss, former President Bill Clinton, and gotten Clinton to offer an "unpaid job" to Sestak on the President's Intelligence Advisory Board.
Oops.
Only "civilians" serve on that board and, as a sitting Member of the House of Representatives, Sestak didn't qualify. He would have to resign from his "paying" job in the U.S. House to take the "unpaid" job on the Intelligence Advisory Board.
Well... they DID only have a couple of days to get their story straight, after all...
This is NOT a case of "...nothing to see here, folks, move along" -- I refer you to 18 US Code, Section 600:
Whoever, directly or indirectly, promises any employment, position, compensation, contract, appointment, or other benefit, provided for or made possible in whole or in part by any Act of Congress, or any special consideration in obtaining any such benefit, to any person as consideration, favor, or reward for any political activity or for the support of or opposition to any candidate or any political party in connection with any general or special election to any political office, or in connection with any primary election or political convention or caucus held to select candidates for any political office, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
Attorney General Eric Holder needs to drop the partisan politics, appoint an independent counsel, and get to the bottom of this.
I think ultimately the question will be...
Will either Bill Clinton or Rahm Emanuel be "patsies," and take the fall for Barack Obama?
Stay tuned...
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