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

[Lemon law]

The other point to make, is that no GOP official has done anything to bring this up to the Senate ethics committee, and even if they did, it would do nothing to invalidate the primary results.

All its useful for is to allow Fox, Limbaugh, and others to spew more FUD to unthinking GOP zealots. As Aegeon pointed out, such offers are a normal part of all political parties primary processes, have been in the past and always will be in the future. Its it on the latter point, that I make my comment about " unthinking party zealots. " who fail to realize their own fan club has done the exact same things countless times in the past.

 

[Sclamoz]

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/prof-richard-hasen-criticizes-fox-their-br

 

[nick1985]

Lemon law is spinning pretty hard with this story

 

[waggy]

The other point to make, is that no GOP official has done anything to bring this up to the Senate ethics committee, and even if they did, it would do nothing to invalidate the primary results.

All its useful for is to allow Fox, Limbaugh, and others to spew more FUD to unthinking GOP zealots. As Aegeon pointed out, such offers are a normal part of all political parties primary processes, have been in the past and always will be in the future. Its it on the latter point, that I make my comment about " unthinking party zealots. " who fail to realize their own fan club has done the exact same things countless times in the past.

is i tnormal? sure but that does nto change the fact its against the law.

My big complaint is Obama came out saying its not going to be politics as normal. yet nothing has changed. Nothing is going to happen to Obama because it is normal politics.

and Obama's team are fricken dumb enough to get caught.

so far for a politican who ran on "change" i don't see a lot of it.

 

[theeedude]

More fake outrage from the right over nothing. The conservative movement lacks any ideas for running this country and has to resort to these PR tricks, kind of sad.

 

[nick1985]

More fake outrage from the right over nothing. The conservative movement lacks any ideas for running this country and has to resort to these PR tricks, kind of sad.

They openly admitted to a crime...how is that fake?

 

[Aegeon]

They openly admitted to a crime...how is that fake?

As I noted, they clearly DID NOT DO SO. Many have massively understated what would actually be required to show a crime was commuted in this situation, and ignored that similar cases with other recent administrations were not in fact prosecuted.

 

[waggy]

More fake outrage from the right over nothing. The conservative movement lacks any ideas for running this country and has to resort to these PR tricks, kind of sad.

its not fake. but its also not the huge deal everyone is makeing it out to be.

but it will be fun to watch who and if anyone rolls on obama

 

[theeedude]

They openly admitted to a crime...how is that fake?

What crime would that be? Offering someone a job? Better throw everyone's boss in jail then.

 

[theeedude]

its not fake. but its also not the huge deal everyone is makeing it out to be.

but it will be fun to watch who and if anyone rolls on obama

Yes, we may find out there are other people in Washington with job offers, or gasp, actual jobs. That doesn't mean jack sh!t. Obama or Clinton can offer a job to anyone they feel is qualified, even if that person is in the middle a political campaign. No law that says you cannot offer a politician a job.

 

[Corn]

You are no better dude. Get off your high horse.

No true.........while admittedly partisan, I am no hypocrite. Feel free to provide any evidence to the contrary if you can...........I welcome it!

 

[ProfJohn]

Oh Jesus , I have never seen a thread with more delusional righty tighties coming out of the woodwork like cockroaches, firmly convinced that nirvana has come.

The disappointment will only come later, when the mountain they built out of a molehill turns out to be only a molehill. By then the righty tighties will find some new excuse to go all gaga over nothing.

How many threads did we have about Karl Rove going to jail??

Or perhaps Dick Chenney??

 

[ProfJohn]

What crime would that be? Offering someone a job? Better throw everyone's boss in jail then.

Are you being an idiot on purpose or did you skip the rest of the thread??

Offering a job in return for a political favor is against the law.

Even calling Sestak and saying "We don't think you running against Spector is a good idea. How about you come work for us instead?" would be against the law. A felony too I believe.

 

[Sclamoz]

Are you being an idiot on purpose or did you skip the rest of the thread??

Offering a job in return for a political favor is against the law.

Even calling Sestak and saying "We don't think you running against Spector is a good idea. How about you come work for us instead?" would be against the law. A felony too I believe.

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/prof-richard-hasen-criticizes-fox-their-br

 

[Aegeon]

Offering a job in return for a political favor is against the law.

Even calling Sestak and saying "We don't think you running against Spector is a good idea. How about you come work for us instead?" would be against the law. A felony too I believe.

As I noted, it looks actually pretty debatable if its against the laws in question if we're talking about choosing to drop out of a race as opposed to a situation where you agree to vote for someone as an individual or for say a specific bill as a Congressman.

Your second situation actually is debatable regarding whether it breaks the law even beyond the previous question. The key is it actually a quid pro-quo bribe, or merely the Obama administration merely offering their opinion and also offering Sestak a job? You might have to look at the rest of the conversation to decide on this. (Remember for a criminal prosecution the standard is beyond reasonable doubt.) If there was not an explicit quid pro-quo and it was more of a contingent job offer that happened to be mentioned in the same conversation, that's not a crime, especially if the Obama administration can point to legit reasons for making the job offer contingent on leaving the primary.

The huge issue though is unless some actually confessed to the job offer being so explicitly quid pro quo or a recording of the conversation actually surfaces, you have realistically no way a prosecutor can possibly prove the case in court. (Sestak doesn't even have to risk possible prosecution with his response, but merely say he can't remember all the details but he assumes it was not said in a way that could be interpreted as a quid pro-quo.)

(This is without even getting into the issue of whether an unpaid advisory position is a creditable bribe for dropping out and whether the situation is possibly prosecutable.)

 

[theeedude]

Are you being an idiot on purpose or did you skip the rest of the thread??

Offering a job in return for a political favor is against the law.

Even calling Sestak and saying "We don't think you running against Spector is a good idea. How about you come work for us instead?" would be against the law. A felony too I believe.

Burden of proof is on you that he was offered a job for a political favor, and not just offered a job with a political benefit of him dropping out being a side effect of that.
Do you have proof of this?

 

[ProfJohn]

Burden of proof is on you that he was offered a job for a political favor, and not just offered a job with a political benefit of him dropping out being a side effect of that.
Do you have proof of this?

In a court of law the burden of proof is on me.

But in the court of public opinion the burden is on Sestak and Obama/Clinton.

The people of PA are going to want answers from Sestak on what happened and if the story doesn't add up it might cost Sestak the race. Which would be greatest irony of all. Obama tries to save the seat for Democrats by offering a job to Sestak only to have that job offer become public and sink Sestak's campaign.

 

[Aegeon]

The people of PA are going to want answers from Sestak on what happened and if the story doesn't add up it might cost Sestak the race. Which would be greatest irony of all. Obama tries to save the seat for Democrats by offering a job to Sestak only to have that job offer become public and sink Sestak's campaign.

Fundamentally there appears to be no suggestion of wrongdoing on Sestak's part, with the only reason the story went public being because Sestak mentioned the situation in the first place.

The issue is it appears pretty much impossible for Sestak's story to not add up if he says no quid quo pro took place, so Republicans are basically wasting everyone's time when talking about criminal charges in this case. (And that if such an offer is even possible to break the law in this situation no matter how it was offered.)

 

[theeedude]

In a court of law the burden of proof is on me.

But in the court of public opinion the burden is on Sestak and Obama/Clinton.

The people of PA are going to want answers from Sestak on what happened and if the story doesn't add up it might cost Sestak the race. Which would be greatest irony of all. Obama tries to save the seat for Democrats by offering a job to Sestak only to have that job offer become public and sink Sestak's campaign.

No, in court of public approval, the burden of proof is also on you too, if you are accusing people of committing felonies. Also shouldn't you Obama haters be loving the guy who stood up to Obama and stayed in the race?

 

[Patranus]

No, in court of public approval, the burden of proof is also on you too, if you are accusing people of committing felonies. Also shouldn't you Obama haters be loving the guy who stood up to Obama and stayed in the race?

I do give him props for turning down this bribe.
Sestak committed no crime, the Obama administration on the other hand.......

 

[theeedude]

I do give him props for turning down this bribe.
Sestak committed no crime, the Obama administration on the other hand.......

Yes, sitting on advisory board to a former president instead of collecting a Senatorial salary and benefits is a huge bribe

 

[nick1985]

Yes, sitting on advisory board to a former president instead of collecting a Senatorial salary and benefits is a huge bribe

It doesnt matter how "huge" it is.

 

[Aegeon]

It doesnt matter how "huge" it is.

It does in fact matter because there is a question of whether it could plausibly be interpreted as an actual bribe. I.E. if the offer is not considered significant or really likely to alter Sestak's behavior at all, that makes the argument that the offer in the original context could not possibly be considered a genuine bribe far stronger.

 

[spidey07]

The crime isn't a bribe, that's how the white house is spinning it. The crime is attempting to enfluence an election. That's why it doesn't matter what the position was or if it was even paid. They've admitted to a federal crime.

 

[theeedude]

The crime isn't a bribe, that's how the white house is spinning it. The crime is attempting to enfluence an election. That's why it doesn't matter what the position was or if it was even paid. They've admitted to a federal crime.

Voting is also attempting to influence an election. I guess all voters are criminals. How about you read the actual laws and prove that they were broken? Or is that too hard?