The cover-up continues. This past Sunday, Congressman Joe Sestak appeared on Meet the Press and continued to tap dance around the charge he made that he was offered a government job to drop out of the campaign. Here’s the exchange between Sestak and NBC’s David Gregory:
Iuc0d2EozPQMR. GREGORY: Yes or no, straightforward question. Were you, were you offered a job, and what was the job?
REP. SESTAK: I was offered a job, and I answered that.
MR. GREGORY: You said no, you wouldn’t take the job. Was it the secretary of the Navy?
REP. SESTAK: Right. And I also said, “Look, I’m getting into this…
MR. GREGORY: Was it the secretary of the Navy job?
REP. SESTAK: Anything that go — goes beyond that is others — for others to talk about.
Well it’s not exactly “for others to talk about” Congressman Sestak.
If Sestak was really offered a job to drop out of the race, a crime occurred. If he is not being forthcoming about who offered him the job, what job he was offered, and the conditions surrounding the offer, Joe Sestak is covering up a crime.
Sestak’s Democratic opponent in the recent primary, Sen. Arlen Specter, along with Rep. Darrell Issa (R, Calif.), who is the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, have each suggested that should Sestak be telling the truth, such a job offer could constitute bribery, a federal crime.
Presidential mouthpiece Robert Gibbs was interviewed on Face the Nation this past weekend. He claimed that there was “nothing inappropriate” about the conversations the Pennsylvania lawmaker had with any administration staffers about a possible position within the administration
“I’m not a lawyer,” he said. “But lawyers in the White House and others have looked into conversations that were had with Congressman Sestak. And nothing inappropriate happened.”
Let’s translate that. There was nothing inappropriate about what the White House offered Congressman Sestak. The White House looked into it and cleared the White House of any wrongdoing.
Yesterday, Obama Political Adviser David Axelrod appeared on MSNBC, and agreed with Gibbs, that the White House has looked into the situation and the White House cleared the White House.
Congressman Issa has been requesting that the Justice Department appoint a special prosecutor to look into the Sestak controversy, but last night they rejected the request. In a letter obtained by Politico, Assistant U.S. Attorney General Ronald Weich said that the DOJ had everything under control, and they could handle the allegations without creating a special counsel. Unfortunately Weich did not mention whether the DOJ was indeed looking into the Sestak matter:
We assure you that the Department of Justice takes very seriously allegations of criminal conduct by public officials. All such matters are reviewed carefully by career prosecutors and law enforcement agents, and appropriate action, if warranted, is taken….The Department of Justice, however, has a long history of handling investigations of high-level officials professionally and independently, without the need to appoint a special counsel.
In other words, the DOJ is telling Congressman Issa that the White House appointees will look into the White House investigation that cleared the White House of any wrongdoing when the White House did or did not offer Congressman Sestak a job. Are you detecting a pattern?
This controversy has been one of the rare cases since the onset of the Obama presidency in which the mainstream media is trying to get to the bottom of the story. The problem though, is no one is asking Joe Sestak the real (and legitimate) “When Did You Stop Beating Your Wife?” question:
Congressman Sestak, if you are telling the truth about the job offer and not being forthcoming, you are covering up a possible crime. If you are not telling the truth, it is a different issue: you are lying to your constituents and to all Americans. Which is it Congressman, Pennsylvania voters need to know — are you lying, or are you covering up a crime?