This story has been simmering just below the surface for months now, and it's starting to smell more and more like it's gonna boil over sometime soon. Dem Joe Sestak (pictured at left), who last week defeated incumbent PA senator Arlen Specter in the dem primary, has repeatedly claimed in recent months that someone at the White House tried to offer him an illegal bribe in the form of a job offer (perhaps a cabinet post) if Sestak would drop out of the PA senatorial primary (allegedly in order to grease the wheels for a Specter primary victory).
Today's Politico.com (link at bottom) discussed how republicans have been trying to push this issue for several months, requesting that Obama's Justice Department appoint a special counsel to investigate Sestak's allegations. Today, the Justice Department officially rejected that request, even though there is absolutely no indication that the Justice Department has made or intends to make any internal effort of its own to look into these allegations.
The White House has apparently successfully put the kibosh and muzzle on Sestak, who's no longer talking about his prior allegations. As to its own position on those allegations, the White House has been stuttering and stammering around for months, finally resulting in press secretary Robert Gibbs' self-serving and conclusory statement recently that "nothing inappropriate occurred." Gibbs and Obama's White House refuse to say anything else.
Now, while it should be clear that Gibbs and the White House would have every motive in the world to try to downplay and avoid these allegations, precisely what motive would Sestak have to fabricate his allegations? He had a motive to publicly disclose these allegations (i.e. so that he could use them against Specter), but a motive to completely fabricate them? Please. I'm certainly no partisan and have no dog in this fight. But this thing is really startin' to stink to High Heaven, which leads me to my conclusion expressed at the top that this one may well have some actual legs going forward. Stay tuned...
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/37713.html
Today's Politico.com (link at bottom) discussed how republicans have been trying to push this issue for several months, requesting that Obama's Justice Department appoint a special counsel to investigate Sestak's allegations. Today, the Justice Department officially rejected that request, even though there is absolutely no indication that the Justice Department has made or intends to make any internal effort of its own to look into these allegations.
The White House has apparently successfully put the kibosh and muzzle on Sestak, who's no longer talking about his prior allegations. As to its own position on those allegations, the White House has been stuttering and stammering around for months, finally resulting in press secretary Robert Gibbs' self-serving and conclusory statement recently that "nothing inappropriate occurred." Gibbs and Obama's White House refuse to say anything else.
Now, while it should be clear that Gibbs and the White House would have every motive in the world to try to downplay and avoid these allegations, precisely what motive would Sestak have to fabricate his allegations? He had a motive to publicly disclose these allegations (i.e. so that he could use them against Specter), but a motive to completely fabricate them? Please. I'm certainly no partisan and have no dog in this fight. But this thing is really startin' to stink to High Heaven, which leads me to my conclusion expressed at the top that this one may well have some actual legs going forward. Stay tuned...
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/37713.html
Posts
