The Sestak-Clinton Smoke Screen

Last summer during an interview, Joe Sestak let it slip that he was offered a “high level position in the Obama administration” in exchange for dropping out of the Senate race against Arlen Specter. This went mostly unnoticed until this past February, while during another interview for his campaign; the question was brought up about his earlier comment. At that time he again repeated the statement he had made in the summer that he was offered a "high level position in the Obama administration" for dropping out of the Senate race.

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Over the past month, Sestak has been asked repeatedly in interviews if he had been offered a high-level job in the Obama administration in exchange for dropping out of the Senate race against Specter. His answer was always the same: “Yes, as I previously stated, I was offered a job by the administration.” He would never elaborate or say exactly what that job was. Obviously, he valued his kneecaps. Democrats needed Specter’s vote to break Republican filibusters in the Senate. The DNC promised to support Specter’s bid for reelection if he would switch parties. They also wanted Sestak to keep his House seat as an incumbent. Those are the reasons given for their pressure on Sestak to drop out of the Senate race. Critics say the Sestak job offer may have violated the part of the U.S. code that states:

18 U.S.C. § 201 : US Code - Section 201: Bribery of public officials and witnesses (b) Whoever - (1) directly or indirectly, corruptly gives, offers or promises anything of value to any public official or person who has been selected to be a public official, or offers or promises any public official or any person who has been selected to be a public official to give anything of value to any other person or entity, with intent - (A) to influence any official act; ...shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than two years, or both.

Also under consideration is Section 600 of the U.S. Code:

18 U.S.C. § 600 : US Code - Section 600: Promise of employment or other benefit for political activity 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.

The Obama regime is quoted as saying: "The advisory positions discussed with Congressman Sestak, while important to the work of the Administration, would have been uncompensated." The carefully crafted story released by the regime is intended to appear to comply with federal regulations and minimize any violations, but falls short of doing that in light of the above code sections. As I see it, this story being put out by the White House is nothing but a smoke screen to keep the media occupied with a debate over whether or not this action by Clinton and the Obama regime constituted a crime. It doesn’t matter; this is not the whole issue. It is a distraction from the real issue and intended to cover up what actually happened over a two-month period. Forget about his talk with Bill Clinton. Sestak is not telling the truth. His statements on Friday regarding Clinton's offer are not consistent with the official statement issued by the White House. "Advisory positions discussed with Congressman Sestak" - positions, plural? What positions, other than the one conveyed by Clinton and admitted to by Sestak and the regime were offered? No one in the media is talking about that, or even asking. They are all preoccupied with the Clinton story, just as the regime planned. Sestak claims he received a call from Clinton, and among other things, they discussed a possible advisory board position in exchange for dropping out of the Senate race. According to Sestak, that portion of the conversation lasted from 30 to 60 seconds and he told Clinton he wasn't interested. According to him, that was the end of it - he wasn’t interested - he didn’t give it much thought - then they went on to talk about other things, he said. That is the whole story according to Sestak, as dictated by the regime after a week of legal discussions to come up with a talking point that would absolve them of any crime and sweep the issue under the rug. The official White House statement says, “Efforts were made in June and July of 2009 to determine whether Congressman Sestak would be interested in service on a Presidential or other Senior Executive Branch Advisory Board…” This doesn't say how many efforts were made over a two-month period, or what those other efforts were. What "high level job" or jobs were offered to Sestak over that two-month period, and by whom in the White House that no one seems to want to talk about? An occasional, unpaid, meeting with a national security advisory board is not a "job." Nor is it a "high level position." It is more like a position one step above an internship. It is certainly not an inducement for someone to drop out of a Senate race. If the DNC wanted Sestak out of that race, they would have offered him something more substantial - something that would give him more money, power, or influence than a Senate seat. This whole story has been concocted to give validity to Sestak's earlier statements that he had been offered a job by the White House, while covering Obama’s and Emanuel’s asses from any crimes. The Clinton incident described by Sestak and the regime probably happened on one occasion, and if it did, it was simply the most benign attempt to persuade Sestak to drop out of the race. It was the one event that they could admit to without showing that any serious crime had been committed. This is their “selective reconstruction of events.” But what other offers were made to Sestak that no one is talking about? That is what needs to be investigated. And the only way to find those answers is to have Sestak subpoenaed by a Pennsylvania grand jury or independent prosecutor and put under oath. You won’t get the truth from the White House or White House phone records as long as Obama has his Blackberry (that he "doesn‘t know how to work.") Rep. Darrell Issa of California and other Republicans are calling for a full and complete investigation by an independent prosecutor, not an Obama crony such as those in the Justice Department or the House of Representatives. Naturally, their efforts will be resisted using any means possible by Obama, Pelosi, and Holder… any one of whom is capable of claiming that, one way or another, this entire game of political musical chairs is George Bush's fault. Witness how some media shills for Obama are already saying that this is just 'politics as usual,' and claim (falsely) that this sort of thing happened repeatedly under Bush. The favorite fallback position of this White House is always to blame Bush for Obama's failures, isn't it? But this sort of political maneuvering never happened under Bush according to two former senior Bush administration associates appearing on Fox News. This may be politics as usual in Chicago, and in Congress as evidenced by all the bribes and coercions it took to ram through the healthcare bill, but offering a high level job in the executive branch, or anything of value, to influence an election is a crime. Only by the media bringing these discrepancies to the public attention will any action be taken. Even then, all efforts to expose the real truth will be resisted and hampered by the Chicago regime now in Washington; a regime that has consistently lied and deceived the public and a compliant media. As evidenced by Nixon’s Watergate, often the cover-up is worse than the crime.