White House caught in a Bribe?

[TheMercenary]

After three months of zipped lips and feigned ignorance, the Obama White House is finally taking real heat over Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak’s consistent claims that the administration offered him a job to drop his Senate bid. Now it’s time to redirect the spotlight where it belongs: on the top counsel behind the Washington stonewall, Bob “The Silencer” Bauer.

On Sunday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs glibly asserted that “lawyers in the White House and others have looked into conversations that were had with Congressman Sestak. And nothing inappropriate happened.” With whom were these conversations had? Gibbs won’t say. Neither will Attorney General Eric Holder, who dismissed “hypotheticals” when questioned about Sestak’s allegations last week on Capitol Hill by GOP Rep. Darrell Issa of California. Holder is simply taking his cue from the commander-in-chief’s personal lawyer and Democratic Party legal boss.

You see, on March 10, Issa also sent a letter to Bauer, the White House counsel to the president, requesting specifics: Did White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel contact Sestak? Did White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina (whom another Democrat, U.S. Senate candidate Andrew Romanoff, has accused of offering a cabinet position in exchange for his withdrawal)? How about the White House Office of Political Affairs? Any other individuals? What position(s) was/were offered in exchange for Sestak’s withdrawal? And what, if any, steps did Bauer take to investigate possible criminal activity?

Bauer’s answers? Zip. Nada. Zilch. While the veteran attorney ducked under a table with the president, Gibbs stalled publicly as long as he could — deferring inquiries about the allegations one week by claiming he had been “on the road” and had “not had a chance to delve into this,” and then admitting the next week that he had “not made any progress on that,” refusing the week after that to deny or admit the scheme, and then urging reporters to drop it because “whatever happened is in the past.”

But the laws governing such public corruption are still on the books. And unlike Gibbs, the U.S. code governing bribery, graft and conflicts of interest is rather straightforward: “Whoever solicits or receives … any … thing of value, in consideration of the promise of support or use of influence in obtaining for any person any appointive office or place under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.”

Bauer is intimately familiar with electoral law, Barack Obama, ethics violations and government job-trading allegations. And he’s an old hand at keeping critics and inquisitors at bay.

A partner at the prestigious law firm Perkins Coie, Bauer served as counsel to the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Obama for America. He also served as legal counsel to the George Soros-funded 527 organization America Coming Together during the 2004 campaign. That get-out-the-vote outfit, helmed by Patrick Gaspard (the former Service Employees International Union heavy turned Obama domestic policy chief), employed convicted felons as canvassers and committed campaign finance violations that led to a $775,000 fine by the Federal Election Commission under Bauer’s watch.

As I’ve reported previously, it was Bauer who lobbied the Justice Department unsuccessfully in 2008 to pursue a criminal probe of American Issues Project (AIP), an independent group that sought to run an ad spotlighting Obama’s ties to Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers. It was Bauer who attempted to sic the Justice Department on AIP funder Harold Simmons and who sought his prosecution for funding the ad. And it was Bauer who tried to bully television stations across the country to compel them to pull the spot. All on Obama’s behalf.

More significantly, Bauer has served as Obama’s personal attorney, navigating the corrupted waters of former Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s pay-for-play scandals in Illinois. Bauer accompanied Obama to an interview with federal investigators in Chicago. And he’s got his hands full fighting Blago’s motion to subpoena Obama in the Senate-seat-for-sale trial — a subpoena that included references to a secret phone call between Obama and Blagojevich; an allegation that Emanuel floated his own suggested replacement for Obama’s seat; an allegation that Obama told a “certain labor union official” that he would support (now-White House senior adviser) Valerie Jarrett to fill his old seat; and a bombshell allegation that Obama might have lied about conversations with convicted briber and fraudster Tony Rezko.

With not one, not two, but three Democrats (Sestak, Romanoff and Blagojevich) all implicating the agent of Hope and Change in dirty backroom schemes, “Trust Us” ain’t gonna cut it. Neither will “Shut Up and Go Away.”

What did Bob “The Silencer” Bauer know, when did he know it, and how long does the Most Transparent Administration Ever plan to play dodgeball with the public?

http://michellemalkin.com/

[richlevy]

Offering politicians a political appointment that requires them to leave an elected position or not to run for an elected position is a standard practice. It is not a 'bribe' in that there is no expected renumeration. It does force the party to choose between the two jobs, and it does benefit the person who offers the job by opening up a seat.

BTW, unlike UT I would have no problem listening to Michelle Malkin or Ann Coulter, provided they were together naked and addressing me from a tub filled with lime jello.

[TheMercenary]

Well actually in this case, if you were to believe the current reports, that is not the case. Sestak has admitted on numerous occassions that someone from the WH called him and offered him a job, supposedly as the Sec of Nav., if he were to drop out of the race. That is a serious allegation by Sestak. The ball is really in his court. He is the one who said it....

[TheMercenary]

If you don't like Malkins delivery you can look at the otherwise liberal rag the NYT for another view...

WASHINGTON — For three months, the White House has refused to say whether it offered a job to Representative Joe Sestak to get him to drop his challenge to Senator Arlen Specter in a Pennsylvania Democratic primary, as Mr. Sestak has asserted.

But the White House wants everyone who suspects that something untoward, or even illegal, might have happened to rest easy: though it still will not reveal what happened, the White House is reassuring skeptics that it has examined its own actions and decided it did nothing wrong. Whatever it was that it did.

“Lawyers in the White House and others have looked into conversations that were had with Congressman Sestak,” Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said Sunday on “Face the Nation” on CBS. “And nothing inappropriate happened.”

“Improper or not, did you offer him a job in the administration?” asked the host, Bob Schieffer.

“I’m not going to get further into what the conversations were,” Mr. Gibbs replied. “People that have looked into them assure me that they weren’t inappropriate in any way.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the “trust us” response from the White House has not exactly put the matter to rest. With Mr. Sestak’s victory over Mr. Specter in last week’s primary, the questions have returned with intensity, only to remain unanswered. Mr. Gibbs deflected questions 13 times at a White House briefing last week just two days after the primary. Mr. Sestak, a retired admiral, has reaffirmed his assertion without providing any details, like who exactly offered what job.

Republicans have pressed Mr. Sestak to explain. “Congressman Sestak should tell the public everything he knows about the job he was offered, and who offered it,” former Representative Pat Toomey, his Republican opponent, said Monday.

Amber Marchand, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said, “Joe Sestak owes Pennsylvanians a full explanation for this potentially illegal activity.”

Continues:


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/us...=sestak&st=cse

[classicman]

though it still will not reveal what happened, the White House is reassuring skeptics that it has examined its own actions and decided it did nothing wrong. Whatever it was that it did.

I dunno whether this is a big deal or not. I don't really think it is at this point.

But that line right there is classic!

[TheMercenary]

It would have never been an issue if 1. the White House would not have tried to bribe him out of the race, and 2. IF he would have never admitted to it numerous times in public.

the Fish is rotting from the head...

[spudcon]

Originally Posted by richlevy

BTW, unlike UT I would have no problem listening to Helen Thomas and Michael Moore, provided they were together naked and addressing me from a tub filled with lime jello.

Fixed it for ya. Eeeewww!

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

It would have never been an issue if 1. the White House would not have tried to bribe him out of the race, and 2. IF he would have never admitted to it numerous times in public.

the Fish is rotting from the head...

Fail.

Loser.

Repubican shill.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Spexx, your sort and your favored boys had better not win if you still like living in a Republic. I do.

Nor is it within your power to make Merc a loser. Fail. Fail hard. Fail hard and suffer, you antigun, antiliberty atrocity of a man. To stay antigun, you have to stay pro-genocide. To stay Left, you have to stay subadult.

[Shawnee123]

So, UG, my man...do you really not understand that Spexx was only mimicking the idiotic nonsense that merc vomits all the freaking time, in most threads, except for the ones in which he is trying to achieve favor from all the right people?

"You fail. You suck. Prove it. Cite."

You should pay more attention, then irony will become funny for you too.

Or, funny for you to. And, for merc, it's Shrill. Not shill. Not shrill. Shrill.

Brilliancy on your side, are you not proud?

If its good enough their hero Reagan....

Hayakawa spurns job offer

....why are the Repubs so outraged?

I dont recall there being any calls by either party for a special prosecutor.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by Redux

....why are the Repubs so outraged?
...

Because they're nasty, unhappy, frustrated, poor losers. Emphasis on losers.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Denied. Need to update the prescription on those Spexx, there, buddy. We're taking Team Socialist to the woodshed this November and in 2012, and you for one are going to howl.

When you could instead be a capitalist, and get a life worth having lived it.

Shawn, Spexx means that sort of thing: he is not satirizing. He is a hoplophobe and a pacifist, and except for the positive feature of being quiet neighbors, such people live terrible lives of neurosis, what with repressed subconscious fears of what they might do were they to snap. It's not good, and his writings show this. I've seen him have a meltdown before. I know better ways to live, and I live them.

[TheMercenary]

White House caught in another lie, trying to bribe someone to drop out of a race for a promise of a job in the White House.

Rod Blagojevich has good company with the Demoncrats in the White House.

WASHINGTON, June 3 (Reuters) - A top aide to President Barack Obama discussed a possible administration job with a Colorado Democrat to try to keep him from running for the U.S. Senate against a candidate Obama had endorsed, the White House acknowledged on Thursday.

Jim Messina, White House deputy chief of staff, talked about three jobs with former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff last year in an unsuccessful attempt to head off a primary challenge against incumbent Senator Michael Bennet, who Obama supports.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN...pe=marketsNews

[classicman]

This is just more SOP from Washington. It is not a party specific problem. Even Ed Rendell admitted as much last night. This is an issue that will, unfortunately never be addressed.