Friday, May 28, 2010

Obama Investigates Self; Concludes No Wrongdoing

Imagine Democrats accepting a self-investigating report from a Republican president about potential criminal wrongdoing by the president or his staff. That is exactly what President Barack Obama's administration is asking you to do with the release of its report on the allegation made by U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) that the Obama White House had offered him a federal job in exchange for dropping his bid against turncoat Sen. Arlen Specter in the Pennsylvania primary this month. The White House report says the alleged offer of U.S. Navy Secretary would have had to occur after the President had already nominated Ray Mabus to the post. The report relies on the fact that Specter switched parties a month after the Mabus appointment was made; however, that assumption is based on the White House not having prior knowledge of Specter's intent to switch parties.

The report acknowledges that federal positions were discussed with Rep. Sestak in consideration to "avoid a divisive Senate primary." It insists, however, that all of the positions discussed with Sestak were merely uncompensated advisory positions that would have allowed him to remain in his House seat. This is where the report gets really funny. The White House enlisted former President Bill Clinton "to raise with Congressman Sestak options of service on Presidential  or other Senior Executive Branch Advisory Board" at the instigation of Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Shades of Rod Blagojevich trying to sell Obama's senate seat for a position in the administration? Congressman Sestak rebuffed the overtures made by Clinton according to the report. Observant readers may recall that Clinton, during the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, enlisted then U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson to extend a job offer to Lewinsky at the U.N. in order to silence her and convince her not to cooperate with the Independent Counsel's investigation, which ultimately led to a recommendation of impeachment by the U.S. House of Representatives.

Don't hold your breath waiting for Democrats to investigate the allegations made by their own U.S. Senate candidate. There will be no need for a special prosecutor. We'll just be told it's time to move along, there's nothing to see here. More important matters require our attention. And don't you just love how the administration conveniently releases the report on the Friday afternoon before Memorial Day weekend, hoping that many reporters have already started their vacation weekend and will have forgotten the whole matter by the time they return to work next week?

5 comments:

Marycatherine Barton said...

President Obama is one slick operator.

jojo said...

Two things:

Bill just can't resist an opportunity.

Body language of Sestak carrying sport coat over shoulder during entire interview, while acting like a rock star, I find weird and suspicious.

dcrutch said...

A couple of quotes from from writer Peggy Noonan that sums up what America is thinking more precisely than anything else I've read:
"There was the tearing and unnecessary war over his health-care proposal and its cost. There was his day-to-day indifference to the views and hopes of the majority of voters regarding illegal immigration. And now the past almost 40 days of dodging and dithering in the face of an environmental calamity."
"The president, in my view, continues to govern in a way that suggests he is chronically detached from the central and immediate concerns of his countrymen."

That's it.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Obama is in way over his head. He is the most unqualified person to assume the presidency in modern American history. I've always found troubling about him the importance he places on style and glamour over susbtance. I honestly think the guy spends more time thinking about the next White House party, ceremony, vacation or golf game than the substantive aspects of the job.

dcrutch said...

I like heading out of Iraq, the muted preference for graduation rates vs union seniority in public schools, and expecting homosexuals to defend our country alongside heterosexuals, but on sound economics and expectations of individual responsibility- this guy is Bush III- only worse.