bobbyw24
05-28-2010, 04:42 AM
Which brings us to Rep. Joe Sestak's claim that he was offered an administration job if he would abandon his race against Sen. Arlen Specter for the Democratic nomination in Pennsylvania. Reportedly, the job offered to the retired admiral was secretary of the navy.
On May 18, Sestak won that primary, and his charge that he was proffered a White House bribe, or deal, went viral.
So, today, Joe has a problem. And so does the White House.
For if Sestak was offered a high post in the administration to abandon his challenge to a U.S. senator endorsed by Obama, this would seem on its face a criminal violation of federal law.
All seven Senate Republicans on the judiciary committee have written Attorney General Eric Holder calling for an independent counsel to investigate the alleged bribe. They cite 18 U.S. Code Section 600, which forbids the offer of any government job "as consideration, favor or reward for any political activity" or "in connection with any primary election or political convention or caucus held to select candidates for any political office."
If Sestak was offered a high government post to get out of the Pennsylvania race, it would appear an open-and-shut case that a felony was committed by someone high in the White House.
When CNN's John King suggested that such an offer "marches up into the gray area, perhaps the red area of a felony, it is a felony to induce somebody by offering them a job," White House adviser David Axelrod did not disagree with King: "If such things happened, they would constitute a serious breach of the law."
However, Axelrod assured King, "when the allegations were looked into, there is no evidence of such a thing."
And who looked into the allegation that a bribe was offered to Sestak and found "no evidence" of White House wrongdoing?
The White House counsel's office.
Sorry, but this will not do. For when White House Counsel John Dean investigated the staff role in Watergate for President Nixon, he, too, found them all innocent.
Nor is this a trivial matter. For if the offer was made by a White House staffer and involved the post of secretary of the navy, serious questions arise for all involved.
Why did not Sestak, a congressman and admiral, report it? Has he not taken an oath to uphold the law?
http://www.lewrockwell.com/buchanan/buchanan137.html
On May 18, Sestak won that primary, and his charge that he was proffered a White House bribe, or deal, went viral.
So, today, Joe has a problem. And so does the White House.
For if Sestak was offered a high post in the administration to abandon his challenge to a U.S. senator endorsed by Obama, this would seem on its face a criminal violation of federal law.
All seven Senate Republicans on the judiciary committee have written Attorney General Eric Holder calling for an independent counsel to investigate the alleged bribe. They cite 18 U.S. Code Section 600, which forbids the offer of any government job "as consideration, favor or reward for any political activity" or "in connection with any primary election or political convention or caucus held to select candidates for any political office."
If Sestak was offered a high government post to get out of the Pennsylvania race, it would appear an open-and-shut case that a felony was committed by someone high in the White House.
When CNN's John King suggested that such an offer "marches up into the gray area, perhaps the red area of a felony, it is a felony to induce somebody by offering them a job," White House adviser David Axelrod did not disagree with King: "If such things happened, they would constitute a serious breach of the law."
However, Axelrod assured King, "when the allegations were looked into, there is no evidence of such a thing."
And who looked into the allegation that a bribe was offered to Sestak and found "no evidence" of White House wrongdoing?
The White House counsel's office.
Sorry, but this will not do. For when White House Counsel John Dean investigated the staff role in Watergate for President Nixon, he, too, found them all innocent.
Nor is this a trivial matter. For if the offer was made by a White House staffer and involved the post of secretary of the navy, serious questions arise for all involved.
Why did not Sestak, a congressman and admiral, report it? Has he not taken an oath to uphold the law?
http://www.lewrockwell.com/buchanan/buchanan137.html