Developing~ Sestak Says He was Offered Job To Not Challenge Specters Senate Seat

[cubeless]

no story here... business as usual for all parties...

 

[heyheybooboo]

Given Sestak's precarious legal problems, I am guessing that it is the latter.

He doesn't have that squeaky-clean Admiral smell, does he?

We don't often see the dirt-bag potential of an individual before they are elected to Congress.




--

 

[Sinsear]

Hope and change

Nick you forgot transparency.

 

[Perknose]

I'm thinking Toomey will end up with the seat...

Care to place a large enough bet to hurt if you lose? Anybody? I LOVE taking fool's money from them!

 

[PokerGuy]

Care to place a large enough bet to hurt if you lose? Anybody? I LOVE taking fool's money from them!

Yeah, how much money did you take off the fools when you were certain Coakley could never lose to Brown? Oh yea, I forgot, that didn't work out quite so well The game is changing, people are waking up to the reality of how crappy our politicians are. I guess there's one good thing that's going to come out of Obama's administration: the will of the people to get the country back on the right track after decades of being on the wrong track.

 

[Lemon law]

I think it all comes down to the Ozoned statement of, "This display of corruption in government isn't going to be good for Obama, or the Dems. Sestak has painted himself into a corner."

And the problem for Ozoned, who no doubt is a rooting for Sestak's future opponent, lies in the fact Ozoned can be even more partisan outraged at the Sestak sell out that did not occur, yet the average voter will not feel even a tiny bit of the Ozoned outrage.

 

[PokerGuy]

yet the average voter will not feel even a tiny bit of the Ozoned outrage.

This is where you are wrong. If the events of the last 6-9 months have shown us anything, it's that the public is very angry at politicians at this point, angry at both parties, angry at the establishment in general. Connecting Sestak to the corrupt establishment and showing that he's just another corrupt politician working in back room deals and such will hurt him. The question is, how much.

 

[nick1985]

Care to place a large enough bet to hurt if you lose? Anybody? I LOVE taking fool's money from them!

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/pub...te_election/election_2010_pennsylvania_senate

 

[Fear No Evil]

Care to place a large enough bet to hurt if you lose? Anybody? I LOVE taking fool's money from them!

So do your progressive liberal friends. They just call it 'taxation' and the fools are the 'American people'.

But seriously is anyone surprised over this? Obama has a pretty clear record on corruption in the election process.. he's just smart enough to let idiots like the former IL governor take the fall for it.

 

[spidey07]

Looks like it's impeach Obama time. Or at the least start the investigation or congressional hearings into Obama administration's federal election crimes. It's not like this sort of thing followed him around from Illinois's empty senate seat.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/polit...s_WH_job_offer_to_get_out_of_Senate_race.html

"It's interesting. I was asked a question about something that happened months earlier, and I felt that I should answer it honestly, and that's all I had to say about it." Sestak said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "Anybody else has to decide on what they will say upon their role. That's their responsibility."

Yet Sestak confirmed to NBC's David Gregory that the incident did take place.

"I was offered a job, and I answered that," Sestak said. "Anything that goes beyond that is for others to talk about."

 

[PJABBER]

The word "impeachment" is now starting to make its way around the Capital.

It may be premature to start those proceedings, but it is too late to keep this event under wraps.

Who made the offer? Was that person, likely Rahm Emanuel, directed to do so by the President? Who knew what, when did they know it and why are they hiding this information from those responsible for enforcing the laws of the land?

Karl Rove, no stranger to the permutations and consequences of violating federal law, said the charge is explosive.

"This is a pretty extraordinary charge: 'They tried to bribe me out of the race by offering me a job,'" he said on Greta Van Susteran's "On the Record" program.

"Look, that's a violation of the federal code: 18 USC 600 says that a federal official cannot promise employment, a job in the federal government, in return for a political act."

"Somebody violated the law. If Sestak is telling the truth, somebody violated the law," Rove said. "Section 18 USC 211 says you cannot accept anything of value in return for hiring somebody. Well, arguably, providing a clear path to the nomination for a fellow Democrat is something of value."

He continued, citing a third law passage: "18 USC 595, which prohibits a federal official from interfering with the nomination or election for office. ... 'If you'll get out, we'll appoint you to a federal office,' – that's a violation of the law."

The Section 600 law -

Whoever, directly or indirectly, promises any employment, position, compensation, contract, appointment, or other benefit, provided for or made possible in whole or in part by any Act of Congress, or any special consideration in obtaining any such benefit, to any person as consideration, favor, or reward for any political activity or for the support of or opposition to any candidate or any political party in connection with any general or special election to any political office, or in connection with any primary election or political convention or caucus held to select candidates for any political office, shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

Who is telling the Truth?

 

[nick1985]

So who is going to be the fall guy for the felony charge?

 

[PJABBER]

So who is going to be the fall guy for the felony charge?

THAT is the real question.

It is highly likely that the offer was made at the specific and personal direction of the President, thus the implication that an impeachable event has occurred.

The word is that Sestak was offered the position of Secretary of the Navy. An offer of that kind of job is going to come from someone in the inner circle, most likely Rahm Emanuel, if not directly from Obama.

Being a messenger of an offer like that is not likely going to result in a criminal charge, unless they get caught up in "forgetting" who said what, a la Scooter Libbey.

 

[nick1985]

THAT is the real question.

The REAL question is whether or not the MSM keeps on the story or if they just try to let it die off and go away. If the media kills the story, likely nothing will come of it

 

[highland145]

Wish he'd taped the offer. That would be worth some big $$$$$.

 

[waggy]

THAT is the real question.

It is highly likely that the offer was made at the specific and personal direction of the President, thus the implication that an impeachable event has occurred.

The word is that Sestak was offered the position of Secretary of the Navy. An offer of that kind of job is going to come from someone in the inner circle, most likely Rahm Emanuel, if not directly from Obama.

Being being a messenger of an offer like that is not likely going to result in a criminal charge, unless they get caught up in "forgetting" who said what, a la Scooter Libbey.

nothing will be done. everything will be "forgotten" because they talk to so many people and tend to forget it. unless its written down of course.

 

[ProfJohn]

Toomey should use this to his advantage by hammering Sestak over it.

If Sestak refuses to offer more details over this federal crime then Toomey should use it to paint Sestak as not trustworthy and complicit in a federal crime.

 

[PJABBER]

nothing will be done. everything will be "forgotten" because they talk to so many people and tend to forget it. unless its written down of course.

You can see in the video I posted above that the Administration is admitting on multiple occasions that an offer was made, but then they stonewall. And I guarantee you that making someone an offer to be Secretary of the Navy is not something that just slipped out in cocktail chatter. There is a paper trail and a vetting process that documents everything.

I really think the Washington press corps are not going to let this one go so easily. You can see it in the daily questions that are raised.

The White House press contingent is getting increasingly pissed off at Obama personally. He has not held a press conference, doesn't answer questions and seems to hold them in as much contempt as he does the Republicans.

They can run hot and cold but their job is to get stories and if you combine that with a feeling of personal betrayal (hell, they did their best to get the guy in office and now he doesn't bother to even talk to them!) you can expect some fireworks before July 4th.

 

[PJABBER]

Toomey should use this to his advantage by hammering Sestak over it.

If Sestak refuses to offer more details over this federal crime then Toomey should use it to paint Sestak as not trustworthy and complicit in a federal crime.

Sestak should come out and offer full details but he has a loyalty to the President and it really should come from Obama first. If it doesn't, Sestak will eventually be more detailed in his statements.

The longer this goes on without being addressed, the more of an explosion will result.

Toomey doesn't really have to do anything right now and it probably would premature to make it a political thing locally unless it shown that Sestak himself lied. The Dems will do the grave digging themselves.

 

[QuantumPion]

Man, where is Patrick Fitzgerald when you need him?


Oh yeah, he's already got his hands full prosecuting Obama's other corrupt political connections in Chicago, LOL. I guess that is Obama's strategy - have some many corrupt dealings going on simultaneously that no single one gets enough attention to get him in trouble.

 

[cubby1223]

NOOOO!!!!

As someone who favors Republicans, and not too keen on Obama, DO NOT IMPEACH HIM!!!

Taking his place would be Biden and that would suck even worse. Next in line is Pelosi, which would suck on biblical proportions!

Attack the administration, but let Obama stay in power.


Let's see, after Pelosi comes Robert Byrd (don't know him so maybe he's okay?), then Hillary Clinton, then Tim Geithner makes me want to cry looking at this list of names. Robert Gates, Eric Holder, then Ken Salazar...

 

[rudder]

Is that even technically corruption? Businesses hire potential competitors all the time.

Tis a felony.

 

[PJABBER]

The plot thickens...

Look who’s behind the White House/Sestak stonewall

by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2010

After three months of zipped lips and feigned ignorance, the Obama White House is finally taking real heat over Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak’s consistent claims that the administration offered him a job to drop his Senate bid. Now it’s time to redirect the spotlight where it belongs: on the top counsel behind the Washington stonewall, Bob “The Silencer” Bauer.

On Sunday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs glibly asserted that “lawyers in the White House and others have looked into conversations that were had with Congressman Sestak. And nothing inappropriate happened.” With whom were these conversations had?

Gibbs won’t say. Neither will Attorney General Eric Holder, who dismissed “hypotheticals” when questioned about Sestak’s allegations last week on Capitol Hill by GOP Rep. Darrell Issa of California. Holder is simply taking his cue from the commander-in-chief’s personal lawyer and Democratic Party legal boss.

You see, on March 10, Issa also sent a letter to Bauer, the White House counsel to the president, requesting specifics: Did White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel contact Sestak? Did White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina (whom another Democrat, U.S. Senate candidate Andrew Romanoff, has accused of offering a cabinet position in exchange for his withdrawal)? How about the White House Office of Political Affairs? Any other individuals? What position(s) was/were offered in exchange for Sestak’s withdrawal? And what, if any, steps did Bauer take to investigate possible criminal activity?

Bauer’s answers? Zip. Nada. Zilch. While the veteran attorney ducked under a table with the president, Gibbs stalled publicly as long as he could — deferring inquiries about the allegations one week by claiming he had been “on the road” and had “not had a chance to delve into this,” and then admitting the next week that he had “not made any progress on that,” refusing the week after that to deny or admit the scheme, and then urging reporters to drop it because “whatever happened is in the past.”

But the laws governing such public corruption are still on the books. And unlike Gibbs, the U.S. code governing bribery, graft and conflicts of interest is rather straightforward: “Whoever solicits or receives … any … thing of value, in consideration of the promise of support or use of influence in obtaining for any person any appointive office or place under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.”

Bauer is intimately familiar with electoral law, Barack Obama, ethics violations and government job-trading allegations. And he’s an old hand at keeping critics and inquisitors at bay.

A partner at the prestigious law firm Perkins Coie, Bauer served as counsel to the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Obama for America. He also served as legal counsel to the George Soros-funded 527 organization America Coming Together during the 2004 campaign. That get-out-the-vote outfit, helmed by Patrick Gaspard (the former Service Employees International Union heavy turned Obama domestic policy chief), employed convicted felons as canvassers and committed campaign finance violations that led to a $775,000 fine by the Federal Election Commission under Bauer’s watch.

As I’ve reported previously, it was Bauer who lobbied the Justice Department unsuccessfully in 2008 to pursue a criminal probe of American Issues Project (AIP), an independent group that sought to run an ad spotlighting Obama’s ties to Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers. It was Bauer who attempted to sic the Justice Department on AIP funder Harold Simmons and who sought his prosecution for funding the ad. And it was Bauer who tried to bully television stations across the country to compel them to pull the spot. All on Obama’s behalf.

More significantly, Bauer has served as Obama’s personal attorney, navigating the corrupted waters of former Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s pay-for-play scandals in Illinois. Bauer accompanied Obama to an interview with federal investigators in Chicago. And he’s got his hands full fighting Blago’s motion to subpoena Obama in the Senate-seat-for-sale trial — a subpoena that included references to a secret phone call between Obama and Blagojevich; an allegation that Emanuel floated his own suggested replacement for Obama’s seat; an allegation that Obama told a “certain labor union official” that he would support (now-White House senior adviser) Valerie Jarrett to fill his old seat; and a bombshell allegation that Obama might have lied about conversations with convicted briber and fraudster Tony Rezko.

With not one, not two, but three Democrats (Sestak, Romanoff and Blagojevich) all implicating the agent of Hope and Change in dirty backroom schemes, “Trust Us” ain’t gonna cut it. Neither will “Shut Up and Go Away.”

What did Bob “The Silencer” Bauer know, when did he know it, and how long does the Most Transparent Administration Ever plan to play dodgeball with the public?

 

[First]

rofl.

 

[PJABBER]

In evaluating most conspiracies and cover ups, it helps to set up a timeline and to identify who is doing what.

On Saturday the Colorado Democratic Party gave another Senate candidate, former House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, over 60 percent of the vote in a convention, which guarantees Romanoff the top billing in a primary challenge to sitting Democrat Senator Michael Bennet. As with Sestak, Romanoff too has been the subject of a job-for-withdrawal scheme, this time the position as reported by the Denver Post in September of last year said to be with the U.S. Agency for International Development. The Post specifically named White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina as the official who offered the job.

As with Sestak and Blumenthal, Romanoff's campaign is also casting their candidate as "A Man of Honor and Conviction" -- while the candidate simply refuses outright to even address the subject of whether he too, like Sestak, was offered what Issa calls "a bribe."

Please bear with me on this post. It took me a while to get through it, but it lays out clearly where this case started and where it may wind up...

Specter Opens Door on White House Felonies

By Jeffrey Lord on 3.16.10 @ 6:09AM

"There's a crime called misprision of a felony. Misprision of a felony is when you don't report a crime. So you're getting into pretty deep areas here in these considerations." -- U.S. Senator Arlen Specter on March 12, 2010

"Right now, they're doing the 'I won't confirm or deny,' and for us, it leaves two possibilities. One is the promise of transparency in this administration is just shot. The second one is even worse, which is either Sestak is lying or the administration has done something wrong and is covering it up…" -- U.S. Congressman Darrell Issa on Friday on March 12, 2010

"The 'stonewall strategy' functioned from the very first episodes of the cover-up. It was instinctive, from the very top of the Administration to the bottom. It was also ad hoc, developed in small reactions to the flurry of each day's events…we found ourselves trying to hold a line where we could." -- Nixon White House Counsel John Dean in his Watergate book Blind Ambition

Here we go again.

Even as the drama of health care carries the headlines, beneath the surface, visible now, the iceberg of scandal ripples.

First, the timeline on the blossoming scandal upon which we will now officially fix the dreaded "gate" descriptive.

Jobsgate.

• September 27, 2009 -- The Denver Post reports that Obama White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina allegedly offered a job in the Obama administration to ex-Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff if Romanoff dropped his planned primary challenge to incumbent U.S. Senator Michael Bennet. Romanoff refuses comment and runs anyway.

• February 18, 2010 -- Philadelphia TV anchor Larry Kane reports that on his just taped Comcast show, he had asked Democratic Congressman Joe Sestak, who is challenging incumbent Senator Arlen Specter whether it was true that the Obama administration had offered Sestak a job if he would withdraw from his primary challenge to Specter. Sestak answers "yes," specifically saying the offer came from someone in the White House and that he, Sestak, turned down the offer. Sestak refuses to name who it was that made the offer. Two hours later, Kane calls the White House, plays them the tape, and asks for comment. The White House never calls him back.

• February 22, 2010 -- In a column here in this space, both the Sestak and Romanoff stories are reported with new information: to offer jobs for favors is in fact a federal crime, and Sestak is in effect accusing the Obama White House of doing just that, just as the Denver Post, months earlier, effectively reported the same activity with Romanoff.

• February 22, 2010 -- ABC White House correspondent Jake Tapper asks Obama White House press secretary Robert Gibbs for a reaction to the charge by Congressman Sestak. Replies Gibbs: "I was traveling for a couple of days, as you know. I haven't looked into this." He promises to get answers.

• March 1, 2010 -- Seven days later, with no answers produced, Gibbs is asked again, this time by Fox News White House correspondent Major Garrett, Gibbs responds: "I have not made any progress on that. I was remiss on this and I apologize."

• March 9, 2010 -- Fifteen days later, Major Garrett asks again. Below, from the transcript provided by the White House:

Q A couple of quick political ones. On the Sestak issue, Arlen Specter said on another -- this afternoon that Sestak and his opinion on this allegation that he was offered a job not to run against Specter, needs to prove it, needs to back it up, and claims that Sestak's accusation is hurting the White House, damaging its reputation. You told us a couple of times you'd check back on this. Can you give us an update, number one? And number two --

MR. GIBBS: I don't have the update with me, but let me check and see if I do have anything --
Q Do you have any evaluation of Senator Specter's comments on this?

MR. GIBBS: No, I don't.

​

• March 11, 2010 -- Seventeen days later Major Garrett yet again, as Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) makes news that he has written a letter to White House Counsel Robert Bauer, demanding an investigation of Sestak's charge.

"I don't have anything additional on that," Gibbs responds.

"Are you ever going to have anything additional on that?"

"I don't have it today," Gibbs said.
​

• March 12, 2010 -- Eighteen days later, yet again Gibbs responds to Major Garrett by saying: "I don't have any more information on that."

Meanwhile, in Colorado, Democratic Senate candidate Romanoff is apparently now hiding under his bed.

Denver's KHOW talk radio host Peter Boyles invites Romanoff on-air to discuss the Post story with me and find out exactly what Romanoff knows and when he knew it.

Romanoff's campaign refuses the opportunity to let the public in on these behind-closed door dealings, saying the issue is "old news."

Not quite.

Days after Romanoff dodges Boyles and myself, Senator Arlen Specter says that if anyone gets such an offer -- and in this case that would be Romanoff in Colorado and Sestak in Pennsylvania -- and didn't report it, they could go to jail for committing a felony.

Stunningly, this would presumably also include anyone on the Obama White House staff who knew one of their colleagues had offered such a job -- which is to say committed a crime -- and didn't report it.

Let's catch up.

After the February 22nd column in this space noted what no else had yet said -- namely that the Sestak accusation was actually a charge of a federal crime -- the Washington Times checked into the story and agreed, editorializing in favor of an investigation into the Sestak/Specter/Romanoff/White House mess.

Next, our colleagues at National Review Online run a news story by former Justice Department official Hans von Spakovsky in which Spakovsky not only further elaborates on other federal laws that may have been broken, but adds this:

Moreover, the Justice Department has a handbook on the prosecution of election offenses published by the Criminal Division that it distributes to all of its federal prosecutors. That handbook specifies that prosecutors can also use 18 U.S.C. § 600 to prosecute corrupt public officials who use "government-funded jobs or programs to advance a partisan political agenda."
​

But wait. There is a problem in the Justice Department.

One former high-ranking Justice Department official, after telling me that there were indeed problems with the Department's silence on this issue, said that in the current political climate at the Holder-run Justice Department, any Justice official who sought to go to Holder with thoughts of investigating Messina or his boss Rahm Emanuel or anyone else in the White House would have to have "brass balls." A colorful way of saying that Justice Department officials are being intimidated from pursuing the truth, no matter where it leads.

Let's go back to Congressman Darrell Issa.

Issa has stepped up to the plate and sent his letter to White House Counsel Bauer, who now holds the job in the legal precincts of the White House once frequented by Nixon's John Dean.

Bauer, it should be noted, is the husband of now-departed Glenn Beck foil Anita Dunn, briefly the Obama White House Communications Director. Bauer and Dunn have been featured in Newsweek as one of ten "global power couples," ranking them alongside -- honest -- Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Bill and Hillary, Beyonce and Jay Z, and Nestor Kirchner and Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Argentina's back-to-back presidents. All of which means, according to Newsweek, the Bauer/Dunn power-combo has power, lots of it. The Congressman has formally requested an answer to his letter -- from Bauer -- by March 18.

Here are Issa's questions, as reported by Politico.com:

1. At any time, did White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel have communications with Rep. Sestak about the 2010 race for the United States Senate? Identify the communications.

2. At any time, did White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina have communications with Rep. Sestak about the 2010 race for the United States Senate? Identify the communications.

3. At any time, did any official within the White House Office of Political Affairs have communications with Rep. Sestak about the 2010 race for the United States Senate? Identify the political officials and the communications.

4. Identify any other individuals at the White House that had communications with Rep. Sestak about his bid for the United States Senate. For each individual, identify the communications.

5. What position(s) was (were) Rep. Sestak offered in exchange for his commitment to leave the Senate race?

6. Following Rep. Sestak's disclosure that he was offered a position in the president's administration in exchange for bowing out of the 2010 race for the United States Senate, what, if any, investigation did your office undertake to determine whether the criminal activity described by Rep. Sestak occurred?

7. Do you expect to make a referral to the United States Department of Justice in this matter? When should we expect this referral?
​

Now, the heat begins to rise as Arlen Specter steps into the middle of all this on Friday. It should be recalled here that Specter is not just Sestak's opponent. He is a former Philadelphia district attorney and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Asked last week about Sestak's charge by Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC, Specter replies:

"That's a very, very serious charge. It's a big black smear without the specifications. But I'm telling you it is a federal crime punishable by jail, and anybody who wants to say that ought to back it up. Listen, Congressman Sestak has gotten a lot of political mileage out of that, and it's really an attack on the administration."
​

By Friday, March 12, as Gibbs is stonewalling Major Garrett yet again on this issue, Specter is a guest on a WSBA-radio show in York, Pennsylvania. Since the show is in York, and not on national radio or television, Specter's answer goes virtually unnoticed. Asked about the topic, he says this, as noted above:

"There's a crime called misprision of a felony. Misprision of a felony is when you don't report a crime. So you're getting into pretty deep areas here in these considerations."

​

In a blink, Specter has raised the stakes here.

What we are now talking about is the potential for a significant unraveling of the Obama White House even as their biggest domestic agenda item, health care, sucks in most of the media oxygen.

If in fact Sestak is telling the truth, if in fact the Denver Post story about Andrew Romanoff is correct -- and neither Sestak nor Romanoff reported these offers to federal authorities -- Specter is saying both could in fact do jail time for committing a felony.

Even more remarkable is to comprehend why Robert Gibbs may now be standing at that White House podium five different times and refusing to answer questions from Jake Tapper and Major Garrett. If Sestak has told the truth, if the Denver Post got it right -- then not only is the person or persons within the White House who made these job offers in big trouble, but anybody else on the Obama White House staff who currently knows this has happened and has not reported it to the proper authorities -- the FBI, just for starters -- is, according to Specter, a potential prosecution target for "misprision of a felony." For which this person or persons could also go to jail along with whomever offered the jobs in the first place.

Quite possibly, that could include Robert Gibbs, if in fact he knows these job offers occurred.

Which is surely incentive enough for Gibbs to understand that he doesn't want to ask this question of his colleagues -- much less get an answer. An answer for which he could be legally liable. Which in turn makes it a lose-lose proposition for him to say anything -- anything beyond some version of no comment -- to Major Garrett or Jake Tapper.

So how does Gibbs deal with this? Fox's Brett Baier has sat down with Sestak, who sticks by his story one more time -- yet tellingly refused to identify the culprit to Baier. This kind of interview with Sestak only adds more pressure still to the White House apparatus.

Again, John Dean on the art of "stonewalling":

"It was instinctive…ad hoc…developed in small reactions to the flurry of each day's events…we found ourselves trying to hold a line where we could."
​

One other thing.

These days, Charles Colson is one of humanity's good guys. He has spent decades creating a ministry called the "Prison Fellowship" in which he looks after the souls of America's prison population. But it will be remembered how Colson got to this point.

Once upon a time he was the feared Nixon White House political aide who famously was said to be capable of running over his own grandmother for his president. In a pre-Watergate 1971 story, the Washington Post described Colson as one of the "original back room boys…the brokers, the guys who fix things when they break down and do the dirty work when it's necessary."

And how has the Denver Post described Obama's Deputy White House Chief of Staff Jim Messina? The man at the center of the Romanoff story and possibly the Sestak story as well? The Denver paper tellingly said Messina was "President Barack Obama's deputy chief of staff and a storied fixer in the White House political shop."

Which is to say, Messina is Barack Obama's Chuck Colson. The fixer.

With a senior Democratic United States Senator, a former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, now ever so not delicately suggesting the players in this drama could all go to jail, it would seem that perhaps Mr. Messina and his Chicago buddies in the White House have fixed things for President Obama in a fashion that was unimaginable on inauguration day in January of 2009...