Sestak offer was no ‘one-off’
Federal law 18 U.S.C. Sec. 600 forbids public officials to “directly or indirectly, promise … any employment, position, compensation, contract, appointment, or other benefit” to any person as a “consideration, favor, or reward for any political activity or for the support of or opposition to any candidate or any political party.”
A single job offer for somebody to abandon a Senate race is enough to cause a serious evaluation for legality. However, if a job offer has happened twice, it starts to show evidence of a specific intent. For the Obama administration and illicit job offers, apparently once was not enough. If the president’s disgraced home-state former governor, Rod Blagojevich, Illinois Democrat, is to be believed, twice may not have been enough as he claims it has happened a third time as well.
By now, everyone knows the Joe Sestak story as it has been in headlines across the country. Mr. Sestak has repeated too many times to count that somebody from the White House offered him a federal job – perhaps secretary of the Navy – if he would drop his challenge to party-switching Sen. Arlen Specter.
There is a similar incident that occurred in Colorado, involving Andrew Romanoff, a candidate challenging Sen, Michael Bennet. Mr. Romanoff was reportedly offered a post USAID, the foreign aid agency. Like Mr. Sestak, Mr. Romanoff declined the offer.
The third such incident, reported by the Hill newspaper, was where the now infamous ex-governor of Illinois received an explicit recommendation from President Obama to appoint Valerie Jarrett for his old senate site. The newspaper also reported that “a supporter” offered a quid pro quo to the ex-governor is Jarrett was appointed.
The Justice Department should not only appoint a special counsel to investigate the purported White House job-offer/bribe to Mr. Sestak, but also should broaden the probe to include remarkably similar allegations about the Senate race in Colorado, and the Illinois incident as well. However, that is not likely to happen because Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., refuses to investigate. Maybe Mr. Holder should also be investigated for obstruction of justice.
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About the Author: Bill is a 51 year old IT Professional who enjoys political blogging in his spare time after work and after the daily grind at the gym.
June 12th, 2010 at 8:48 pm
Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!