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Joe Sestak, the challenger in the Democratic Senate primary against Arlen Specter, alleges that he was offered a federal job if he stayed out of that race.
Rep. Joe Sestak (D., Pa.) said yesterday that the White House offered him a federal job in an effort to dissuade him from challenging Sen. Arlen Specter in the state’s Democratic primary.
The disclosure came during an afternoon taping of Larry Kane: Voice of Reason, a Sunday news-analysis show on the Comcast Network. Sestak would not elaborate on the circumstances and seemed chagrined after blurting out “yes” to veteran news anchor Kane’s direct question.
“Was it secretary of the Navy?” Kane asked.
“No comment,” Sestak said.
“Was it [the job] high-ranking?” Kane asked. Sestak said yes, but added that he would “never leave” the Senate race for a deal.
It’s not possible that Sestak was offered Secretary of the Navy. Ray Mabus was nominated for that position by the White House in late March of 2009. Arlen Specter didn’t even switch parties until April 28 of that year. Sestak said that the offer came in July, after Mabus was confirmed for the post.
I don’t think anyone should be surprised that the White House has tried to manage the primary process to protect individual incumbents – we have that on the record multiple times. You’d think they’d have done a better job, with all the attention they paid to it, however. They selected cabinet members from New York and Colorado without knowing that the Governors in those states would pick subpar candidates. They could not entice the Vice President’s own son to run for a seat in Delaware. They plucked Kathleen Sebelius and Janet Napolitano out of their respective Governor’s mansions when they could have been real contenders for seats in Kansas and Arizona. They had nobody ready for Evan Bayh’s retirement, although he claims to have let them know for months that he could leave. There’s the Martha Coakley nightmare. And obviously, Sestak didn’t give in to their demands, nor will Harold Ford (though the comedic value of having him run is high). For a White House presumably obsessed with meddling in Senate elections, the failures far outshine the successes.
Still, it’s startling for Sestak to say this out loud, even if it was assumed.
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I can believe that Rahm said something that could easily have been taken as a job offer. Rahm wouldn’t have wanted Sestak running against his BFF Specter.
LEAVE HAROLD FORD ALONE!
srsly, his potential campaign has provided new yorkers with much-needed laughter through this snowy, bitter time.
That seems to be all the White House does these days: cut back room deals to preserve the status quo.
Change agent, my ass! Let’s hope Obama gets a Primary challenge from the Left three years from now.
AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen David Dayen and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
Sestak is havin’ trouble gainin’ any traction in the primary fight against Spector so he needed to take the plunge and make ObamaRahma the enemy…this is a good thing but it might be too little too late. I been sayin for a long time now that the best thing that can happen is for the Democrats to lose a whole lotta Blue Dogs and Republicrats in November and to make Rahm so toxic that Obama cuts ‘im loose.
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, PRETTY SOON THEY’RE GUNNA COLLAPSE OF THEIR OWN WEIGHT OR TURN INTO PANCAKE BATTER!!
nor will Harold Ford (though the comedic value of having him run is high).
Palin-Ford, 2012. Not only would that be “bi-partisan,” it would also be the “Full Employment Act for Comedians.”
cut back room deals to preserve the status quo.
Wait. That’s not the job?
That pretty much sums up the Obama Administration completely, doesn’t it?
This all comes down to a matter of perspectives. In the real world, Obama and the Democrats have been picking godawful candidates guaranteed to keep their base at home. But, and this is the important point, these are exactly the kind of candidates Obama wants, Blue Dog status quo corporatists like himself.
But again my question, why should we care what the Democrats are doing? It’s not like they represent us or our interests anymore than the Republicans do.
TURN INTO PANCAKE BATTER!!
Mmmmmm….Pancakes….
For a White House presumably obsessed with meddling in Senate elections, the failures far outshine the successes.
Well, we are talking about Rahm here. He has a long history of failures far outshining successes when it comes to elections.
I see the A Team showed up this morning in comments! You guys crack me up.
in a good way….
Whoa! this kind of information is critical for people like me!
stupidly, there is an itty bitty rinky dinky tweeny weeny little piece of me that keeps hoping that maybe the big zee-r-0 will quit the path of clintonianism and sell outism – and – WHEW – along comes another reminder!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
rmm.
Yeah….Obama wants the Blue Dogs to rule, not the progressive. Hence, the endless out-reach to the unreachable (the insane GOP), and the cultivation of the mediocre but corporately connected.
Feh…This is NOT the change I voted for.
kind of … kind of yes and kind of no.
Despite the DLC-ites getting their asses kicked during dukakis and despite howard dean showing them up ——–
they’re calling the shots on ‘our’ side.
the fascists couldn’t have better opponents for accomplishing fascist goals.
rmm.
Arizona was already on its way to hell in a handbasket and it was all Janet could do as governor to slow it down. Now there are no brakes on our crazy state legislature. And instead of Janet being able to shine for her smarts and experience with immigration policy, she gets to be the Homeland Security chief who didn’t see the underpants bomber coming. Lose/lose. Thanks Obama.
1994 Congressional elections. Thanks, Rahm!
Speaking from PA, anything to get rid of the toxic waste Arlen Specter. Rahm certainly will have foreign funds from Tel Aviv channeled into Specter’s treasury. Perhaps the only thing to save PA is for Pat Toomey to tool around in a pickup truck like centerfold-guy Scott Brown.
This was all obvious enough for those who are willing to admit a slap on the face when they get one…. he waltzed into AIPAC with Rahm a day after securing a primary victory… and he chose to ardently support John Barrow in Georgia over a decent human being…. to name two egregious and early warnings.
Look what happened to Dean and how and what replaced him.
And he still spends all his time begging for republican love. It’s a sickness without a cure.
I would call him the best snake oil salesmen the west has ever known, but snakes have a spine.
“That seems to be all the White House does these days: cut back room deals to preserve the status quo.”
Obama is surprisingly bad at executive management. Despite having a gigantic staff, the WH continually punts things to Congress to do and what isn’t punted to Congress either doesn’t get done or gets done poorly. Other than meeting lobbyists, what does the WH do on a daily basis? I genuinely don’t know what the WH is doing – like it surprised me that the WH-initiated High Value Interrogation Group hasn’t been set-up yet despite the announcement of it months and months ago. What did the WH think – that terrorists would wait to strike until the HIG was set up in its own merry time?
Rahm is a pisssant incompetent, esp compared to Karl Rove.
That recitation of electoral planning failures sure sounds like Rahm Emanuel.
But he is a bit more photogenic and is a world class purveyor of profanity. If only cussing were an olympic sport.
I keep meaning of writing a diary of key failures and sell outs since … tip o’neill cut financial aid when I was 22 in ’82 cuz the leveraged buy out boys needed to wipe out pensions and boeing needed more $900 toilet seats and thieving senior managers …
and then I feel like I’m gonna puke on my keyboard.
rmm.
This kind of a track record, and Rahm has the cojones to call progressives “f#&*ing retards”?
Shades of that Democratic administration gone by. Eliminate anyone politically viable that shows you up on the left so that you are the candidate of change. Deja vu all over again.
“Obama To Announce $1.5 Billion In Housing Help”
can’t we just admit ‘we’ve’ been had, and agree to meet in the Streets to discuss it further?
Jane has a new post already in progress: Hatch Lash Fever
The bipartisanship fetish is just cover for him to govern from the right. We were punk’d.
The “Cornhusker Kickback,” the “Louisiana Purchase,” the “Sestak Suckup” and now the “Las Vegas Jackpot!” When will it end. Your “Killing” us. Where is Axelrod’s PR machine?
The big O was here in town yesterday, endorsing Bennet. Pissed off a lot of Dems. Salazar was going to get primaried from his left in Co. the next time he was up for office.. He was a total blue dog. The Gov. actually ran an online survey about who he should pick to replace Salazar. The results came back overwhelmingly for Andrew Romanoff, the term-limited Speaker of the House here. Then Ritter appointed Bennet, and everyone in the state scratched their heads and said “Who?” First thing Bennet does when he gets to Washington is sign onto the Blue Dog Caucus. And that unfortunate noise heard all over Colorado was the sound of Democratic voters collectively shitting themselves sideways.
Romanoff is primary-ing Bennet, and his big, BIG attraction is that he’s not taking PAC money. It’ll be hard, but we voters need to buy our OWN damn Senators! Bought and paid for by US. Gotta quit giving money to the DNC, etc, they just give it away to the Dems that we’re fighting against.
Sadly and unfortunately the President has decided on a small circle for advice and opinion.
Too bad, this circle doesn’t include Dr. Dean. He should have been consulted on how certain appointments would effect Senate and Governor races.
Another RahmaObama failure IMO.
Hear, hear! Hallmark Hall of Fame Comment. Well said!
Another Hallmark Hall of Fame Comment about the invertebrate president was posted in these hallowed halls when Obama met with Putin in Russia. I don’t recall who posted it.
“When Putin looked deep into Obama’s eyes probing for his soul, he found a doormat.”
Do you recall who said that? Both of you deserve recognition and prizes.
Amen, to that!
Why is the Obama administration afraid of principled progressives?
It smells like the kind of thing rahmburger would do, doesn’t it? Instead they back an 80 year old republican who won’t make it through the term? Brilliant.
I totally agree that they should have left Sebelius alone in Kansas. Now instead of her we are going to elect Sam Brownback, who will be a clone of Inhofe and Coburn.
What “it (obamarahma)” is doing is setting up a special advisory council to attack the deficit. Dollars to doughnuts they will come up with the surprising suggestions of cutting SS and Medicare along with the possibility that younger people will be able to invest some or all of their SS deductions in the stock market. They will not address the possibility of bringing the troops home from all over, cutting the defense budget, and dropping the toxic use of mercenaries as proxy military (elsewhere we call them paramilitaries and scorn third world governmental use of them) accountable to no one.
The WH is so consistantly and completely incompetant in all aspects of governing that it is almost like they plan it that way.
Yeah, I can’t wait until President Emmanual is let go by Obama. If that were to happen who would become president?
Oops, I forgot Obama is president already.
I really don’t see this as a Dick-and-Bush scenario.
not many expected it would be this bad – but then nobody expects the spanish inquisition.
The pity is the only campaign promise he is keeping is escalating the war in Afganistan. I figured there would be some balance – but all the explicit and implicit promises that caused most people to vote for him are not being done or considered – all the shitty stuff and status quo is humming right along.
I live in Sestak’s district… and for now, I’m undecided between him and Specter, something I never thought would be the case when Sestak was first running to replace Curt Weldon.
But, when you consider how similar their votes were with Sestak as a Democrat and Specter as a Republican… it does give one pause. Especially, since Specter was always having to protect his right flank from his own party. Sestak, who was not protecting his right flank, still voted for that odious FISA bill.
That whole recruiting of military people… is it really worthwhile? Haven’t we only ended up with a lot of Democrats who are more conservative than not?
test
Isn’t this essentially what got Rod Blagojevich in trouble?
When laws are applied selectively, there is no law.