The Glade 4.0

Darrell Issa: White House Can't Just Say it Didn't Break the Law

The White House is insisting that when an unnamed administration official allegedly offered Rep. Joe Sestak a job in return for dropping his Senate bid, "nothing inappropriate happened" -- but that's not good enough, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said today on Washington Unplugged.

Sestak, who defeated Sen. Arlen Specter to become the Democratic Party's nominee for Senate in Pennsylvania, maintained on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday that such an offer had been made. However, he refused to give any details, such as whom from the White House he spoke with, or what job was offered.

Meanwhile, also on "Face the Nation," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said, "Lawyers in the White House and others have looked into conversations that were had with Congressman Sestak, and nothing inappropriate happened."

Issa, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is renewing his push for the White House to address the issue now that Sestak is the Democrats' Senate nominee. He is calling for a special prosecutor to investigate the offer, which he says could be a violation of the law. The conversation between Sestak and the official, Issa says, may have violated anti-bribery provisions of the federal criminal code as well as prohibitions on government officials interfering in elections and using federal jobs for a political purpose.

"No administration should be allowed to assume what they do and say is legal because they say it's legal," Issa told Unplugged moderator John Dickerson. "It's for Congress to decide whether or not this was inappropriate."

While Sestak should feel obligated to answer questions about the incident, Issa said, it is more a problem for the White House. Even Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner (N.Y.) and Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine have said the White House should "come clean," Issa said.

"The White House could release an opinion of what was said and by whom," he said. "The sooner you get this out... the sooner they put it behind them."

Watch the discussion above, along with a conversation with CBSNews.com's Brian Montopoli about the GOP's win in Hawaii and Andrew Cuomo's New York gubernatorial bid. Also on the show: a behind the scenes discussion with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer.

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Holy shitsnacks!

More bullshit Chicago style back room politics... **** hypocritical government.

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

So the line that both Sestak and the Whitehouse has fallen into is that Slick Willy had a small informal conversation about a unpaid board position and that there is nothing else to see here. However even if they are telling the truth I don't see it going to bed that easy. To me it seems a slight departure from Sestak's earlier comments.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

I guess I'm reading this as "Republican claims anonymous member of white house did something illegal but wont provide any details and the white house has no comment as they have nothing they can refute."

Vague implications of wrongdoing without details are akin to someone pointing a finger and saying "Shun! Shun!"

Except that the White House has already admitted the event happened as described. Rahm Emanuel used Bill Clinton as a liaison to Sestak, and no one denies it. President Obama has denied any personal prior knowledge of the offer, but the official response thus far has been that nothing untoward was done anyway; regardless of a well known federal statute prohibiting exactly what happened.

This administration is beginning to look very Nixonesque.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

I'm pretty sure at this point that Obama just straight up doesn't care. He's been on a ludicrous amount of vacations, and has already played more games of golf during his presidency than the last couple presidents put together.

He's got the fame and popularity that he was apparently looking for, and seems to be starting to blow off the responsibilities that he should be taking care of.

I would like to say I'm baffled by how little flack he's getting because of his crappy responses to the oil leak in the gulf after all the crap Bush got after Katrina, but it's not really all that surprising.

To be honest, I don't really fault the Obama administration for much of anything concerning the oil leak. The federal government doesn't have the great engineering minds at it's disposal like the oil companies do, and they don't have the technology or expertise. This is a new problem, and has no known solutions. Blaming the president for this is nothing but politics in a place where politics don't have a place, and only serve to convolute the issue. But then, I don't fault the Bush administration for Katrina either.

People put to much faith in the ability of government to solve problems which often are unsolvable under the best conditions and most efficient and effective leadership... neither of which government is known for.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

Bush didn't suspend Federal response to Katrina for 30 days; nor, for that matter, did he immediately state he was going to take credit for whatever solutions were presented for it. Obama, however, has already stated he's taking responsibility for any solution to the problem that does work. He's politicking the situation for his own gain, everyone else be damned.

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Which is politics, and has nothing at all to do with the oil leak, or actual solutions to the problem.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

Rynar:

Except, when the President intentionally makes it political, he should be held accountable for doing so. I do fault him for that. But, it's ok, this oil spill will just make BP government property.

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I agree with this, although it runs counter to the reality of the entire documented history of government and politics.



Assuming that BP was an American company, which it isn't. Some of it's subsidiaries are, but not those involved with this debacle.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

You can't break the law when you are above it. Duh.

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

This is only interesting to me because of the reaction of many moderate/liberals who heralded Obama as this new politician that would change Washington. i.e. they believed his hype and campaign promises.

Now they are shocked, shocked! that he's screwing the pooch and doing the same things every other politician does. His popularity is waning and they are jumping ship.

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“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general”. - Mark Rippetoe

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Holy shitsnacks!

It's that damn vast right wing conspiracy again.

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"It is true that democracy undermines freedom when voters believe they can live off of others' productivity, when they modify the commandment: 'Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.' The politics of plunder is no doubt destructive of both morality and the division of labor."

Well... Rasmussen is an extremist after all.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

Obama is just an expert at publicizing himself and campaigning. He's a master at hype. He's never done anything useful as a politician. I don't know why people expected differently after he got elected into office.

I was a heretic when I mentioned this during the campaign

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You're still a heretic.

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Light the torches!

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