I don’t think this scandal will go away:
There are two possibilities here. One is that Sestak was embellishing or outright fibbing, and the White House doesn’t want to hang him out to dry… The other is that there was some kind of offer, which might be illegal but is — in any case — the epitome of Washington insiderness and backroom deals, which the voters have come to loathe.
His opponent, Pat Toomey, echoes the New York Times (yeah, it’s a weird election year all right), putting out a statement that is restrained in tone but asks for a full accounting: “My response is simply this: Congressman Sestak should tell the public everything he knows about the job he was offered, and who offered it. To do otherwise will only continue to raise questions and continue to be a needless distraction in this campaign.”
It is a measure of how frustrated the press has become with the perpetual stonewalling and outright contempt this president has shown the media that the Times and other outlets are now aligned with a conservative Republican in demanding that one of the most liberal Democrats on the ballot come clean.
I doubt that Sestak was lying – anything is possible, but to make something like that up out of whole cloth not at all likely. He was offered something – or at least was given to understand he was offered something (it is doubtful that it was ever as straightforward as “if you get out, we’ll give you this; there would be a wink/wink, nudge/nudge aspect to this). It is also very much in keeping with the Democrats MO – they do these sorts of deals on a regular basis (you might recall the way they booted Bob Toricelli off the NJ Senate ballot – illegally – when the Powers That Be became concerned he would commit Mortal Democrat Sin…ie, lose the race).
So, who said what to whom? This is what must be answered – and the longer Sestak and the Administration stonewall, the worse it will be. Of course, it is much worse for Sestak – he already had an uphill climb to try and win the race ,now its a lot harder. For the Administration, not such a big deal. One more Democrat Senator, more or less, doesn’t matter and if Sestak loses, then the whole scandal dies for lack of interest.
Bad for Democrats, fun for Republicans – I wonder how long they’ll keep the stone wall up?
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