PrintJune 3, 2010
Drip...drip...drip...: CO candidate details WH job offers
Colorado senate candidate Andrew Romanoff has confirmed that the White House offered him not one, not two, but three separate jobs in government to drop out of the primary race against the incumbent Michael Bennett.
Those bribery counts are starting to add up. Here's Politico:
In a statement released at 6:25 a.m., Gibbs said Messina did reach out to Romanoff to see if it would be possible to keep him out of a primary challenge to Bennet, who had the White House's backing."Andrew Romanoff applied for a position at USAID during the Presidential transition," Gibbs said. "He filed this application through the Transition on-line process. After the new administration took office, he followed up by phone with White House personnel," Gibbs said."Jim Messina called and emailed Romanoff last September to see if he was still interested in a position at USAID, or if, as had been reported, he was running for the US Senate. Months earlier, the President had endorsed Senator Michael Bennet for the Colorado seat, and Messina wanted to determine if it was possible to avoid a costly battle between two supporters."Gibbs continued, explaining that Romanoff rebuffed the overture: "Romanoff said that he was committed to the Senate race and no longer interested in working for the Administration, and that ended the discussion. As Mr. Romanoff has stated, there was no offer of a job."
Now, a good lawyer would probably be able to parse all of this so that it would appear that nothing untoward was going on.
But these are all big boys. They knew the score. They knew what was going on, what was being offered, and why. This "wink and a nod" explanation will satisfy the Obamabots and those in the press who will say with a straight face that all of this was on the up and up and those dirty right wingers are making a mountain out of a dungheap.
And with the Justice Department so politicized that there is no chance for any kind of a special prosecutor, the Sestak/Romanoff issues will eventually fade away.
But it won't lessen the smell of corruption emanating from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, nor wipe away the abject cynicism of a political culture created by President Obama that sneers at the law while reaping the benefits of appearing to be "transparent."
Hat Tip: Ed Lasky
Thomas Lifson adds:
What kind of political fixer uses email to describe his bribes?
As was the case with the Specter-Sestak race, a sitting senator's vote was needed to pass ObamaCare, providing a strong motivation to placate the incumbent by clearing the primary field. Motive, in other words, is present.
No doubt Eric Holder will continue to stonewall calls for an independent counsel to investigate a pattern of job offers offered as inducement for a political act, a felony. The cry of Democrats that this is "politics as usual" clashes embarrassingly with Obama's campaign promise of "change" for those very same politics.
