Slip Sliding and Side Stepping Sestak

This nasty peice of dirty laundry and law breaking has been mentioned in the press since early February.

For the past three days I have read endless articles, 23 to be precise regarding the job (still a secret) offered to former Admiral and current Congressman, Joe Sestak.

What precisely was this effort to protect Obama's initial filibuster blocker Arlen Spector? Was it an effort prevent his loss in a troubled run to be the winner in the Democratic Pennsylvania Democratic Primary, to protect Spector from his loss this month?

One can rationally surmise that Spector switched parties to gain Democratic backing after the election of 2008, as he felt certain his seat as a Republican was in jeopardy. However no one is discussing this driving factor, the protection of the Spector and gift for his party jumping athletics in 2009.

I need a shower, my waders have become smeared with more sludge that can be found at a sludge plant. This reeks of Chicago style politics, and it really smells. Even the mainstream media has picked up the scent.

Sestak's mercurial statement that he was offered a job to not run for the US Senate seat against Arlen Specter, in the Democratic Primary seat in the Senate, falls flat in the honesty gut check column. His efforts to look like a hero are empty, and ring less than true, with out the full story, which not only Pennsylvania but all Americans have a right to know.

Who in the Whitehouse made this offer? What was the position? Even more importantly would this be a position that was made as an offer at the behest of the President of the United States?

This is dirty Chicago politics at its worse. Defenders of the Democrats say, both parties do this, and what is worse paying off debts, and that this is a common practice. This sort of apology for anarchy committed by both parties in the Federal Government needs to stop.

From, this link, http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/congress/Sestak-may-face-ethics-probe-over-claims-of-White-House-job-offer-94534059.html says, Daryl Issa, ..."Republican Minority Chair of the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said "his panel is obligated to investigate the claims because they involve three felonies, including offering a bribe and interfering with an election."

However with each assertion that what he is says is true fact, Sestak refuses further comment. This You tube is a collage of his assertions, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJLejs_0ZR0&feature=player_embedded .

Republicans are hamstrung to really push this issue, as they lack sufficient numbers to mount a real effective demand with teeth to call for the Department of Justice to call a Special Prosecutor, or even initiate hearings. This little tidbit has been out there brewing since February. Sestak has taken the path of least resistance hoping to land near but not in this can of fish.

Gibbs, Press officer to the President has obsfucasted to the point of ridiculousness. The MSM until this week remained compliant, but all reporters in their own self interest have suddenly become Bernstein and Woodward. Even the New York Times and Washington Post.

Believe it or not even Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) is quoted here, http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/99731-durbin-wants-answers-from-sestak "the onus is on Sestak to say more about the offer he claimed to have received from the Obama administration in exchange for dropping his primary challenge to Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.).

"At some point, I think Congressman Sestak needs to make clear what happened," Durbin told reporters at the Capitol."

In this link, http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/05/25/gop_congressman_issa_on_sestak_white_house_job_offer_crimes_and_felonies_have_been_committed.html
which also includes a video of Daryl Issa, from Real Clear Politics, says. ..."The White House has dodged questions about the matter until recently. Yesterday, Obama's senior adviser David Axelrod said "nothing inappropriate happened." White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs gave the same response on Sunday's "Face the Nation." Here is link to Issa's blog http://issa.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=23&Itemid=29 from his Congressional site, and his closing statement reads as follows, ..."The bottom line is if the White House continues to stonewall Congress and the American people, I will petition the attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor to launch an investigation into the allegation. In the meantime, I fear we’re in for more obtuse and evasive statements from administration officials. In that case, the White House will be falling back on a concerted scheme and cover-up strategy not seen in Washington since the days of Watergate.

Here is the link of the response of the Justice Department, to Representative Issa, http://abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/Issa_WF_052110.pdf

Even one of the most left in the Democratic Party is calling for and investigation according to Townhall: http://townhall.com/blog/g/aa48ed50-76b2-4d30-8e41-ca74e3d3fae5?comments=true&commentsSortDirection=Descending Granted, Weiner's motives are questionable, or maybe he is truly offended.

Michelle Malkin, in this piece, http://townhall.com/columnists/MichelleMalkin/2010/05/26/look_whos_behind_the_white_housesestak_stonewall

points to Bauer, the White House Council to the President, one of those many "Chicago fish" seen in the can.

Just this week, all seven Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee sent this letter, http://abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/Letter_Holder_Sestak_100526.pdf urging the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate Congressman Joe Sestak's claim that a White House official offered him a job to induce him to exit the Pennsylvania Senate primary race against Senator Arlen Specter."

In a scathing article from National Review On Line,
http://article.nationalreview.com/434947/obama-omerta/robert-costa
..."Americans deserve to be told what Sestak knows. The line between transactional, horse-trading politics and abuse of power is very fine, and best evaluated by someone other than Axelrod and Gibbs. Besides, this Sestak flare-up is far from the first instance of unseemly deal-making under Obama’s watch. Last year, for example, the Denver Post reported that deputy White House chief of staff Jim Messina offered Andrew Romanoff, a Colorado Democrat, a job at USAID if he’d end his primary challenge to Sen. Michael Bennet. Like Sestak, he refused.

Why is Sestak afraid to say more? Three months ago he told The Ed Show on MSNBC that “to go further” than he has in explaining what happened “serves no purpose, because that’s about politics.” No, it’s about the law. Sestak should talk.

Somebody might want to remind the president how that story ended."

I agree, there is no "if in ethics." Both Sestak and the Whitehouse have an obligation to come clean with the American public.

The statutes, which appear to be in question for violation, are:

http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/18/I/29/600

http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/18/I/11/211

http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/18/I/29/595

The stench of this is really bad. Sestak has placed himself in a corner, and this administration will happily throw him under the bus. If Sestak had the true ethical center he claims, he would come clean instead of waiting for some exonerating condition that helps him to excuse his part of this offer. He should have immediately left the Whitehouse and made a statement to the press, this is what a man of honor would have done.

It is unlikely that Rham will fall on a sword for the President or his personal very shifty, Bauer Chief Council to the President.

Today, in his first press conference in 309 days, the last question was by Major Garret about the Sestak offer, and the 44th in yet more obsfucation said soon the Whitehouse would be releasing a statement regarding the incident. At his press conference President Obama made this claim, which is nearly the same in my estimation of 'trust me this won't hurt.' I am certain in this really shady deal somehow his aides and administration will find some way some justification to blame Bush, Cheney and former Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich. http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/senate-races/100257-obama-on-sestak-controversy-nothing-improper-took-place

***************

Today is Friday the day after the fall out and I just have to add this,from the Washington Examiner, http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Obama-dodges_-but-Sestak-questions-won_t-go-away-95071799.html ..."
Well, when the president was asked about it at his news conference Thursday -- the question didn't come up until the very last reporter was called on -- the normally long-winded Obama spoke for a total of 32 seconds."

This is not going to go away. How delightful!

And this is just in, http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/white-house-used-bill-clinton-to-ask-sestak-to-drop-out-of-race/

..."As chief of staff and previously as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Mr. Emanuel has not been shy about trying to steer party nominations to those he considers the stronger candidates. The White House under Mr. Emanuel has also leaned on Gov. David Paterson of New York to drop out of this year’s gubernatorial race, which he eventually did under a cloud of scandal. Andrew Romanoff, challenging Sen. Michael Bennet in a Colorado primary, has said Mr. Emanuel’s deputy, Jim Messina, offered him a job to drop out."

Here is the link for the text of the Whitehouse release, http://www.realclearpolitics.com/mediawatch/Sestak%20Memorandum.pdf

So now deniablility for Obama is confirmed by the convicted perjurer Clinton!