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Issa Threatens July 4 Ethics Probe over Sestak Bribery Claim

By: James Richardson (Diary)  |  May 22nd, 2010 at 11:29 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

In the wake of Tuesday’s Pennsylvania Democratic Senate primary, a top House GOP legislator is renewing his call for an ethics probe into allegations the White House offered Rep. Joe Sestak an administration post in exchange for foregoing his primary bid against Beltway-endorsed Sen. Arlen Specter.

California Rep. Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican member of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee, said Sestak, who on Tuesday bested Specter by nearly 8 points, must identify the job he was allegedly offered and who in the administration proposed it. Issa has been a one-man firing squad on the point since February, when then-dark horse Sestak claimed in a radio interview an Obama aide had offered him a “high-ranking” federal gig at the onset of his Senate bid.

“Was Joe Sestak embellishing what really happened, or does he have first-hand knowledge of the White House breaking the law,” asked a statement from Issa’s office. “If what he said is the truth, Joe Sestak has a moral imperative to come forward and expose who within the Obama administration tried to bribe him.”

If Sestak and the White House remain mum–and all markers indicate they will–or If the matter is not brought before the Office of Congressional Ethics, the clearinghouse for Capitol Hill ethics probes, Issa warned that he or a fellow member would file an official complaint on July 4.

“I’ve reviewed the capability and appropriateness” of lodging a complaint with the committee, Issa said. “I’m one of many members of Congress considering that it has to be done if he doesn’t come clean.”

If the bribery claim bears any semblance to reality, Issa warned that the White House official who contacted the Sestak may have violated federal law barring election interference and promising employment for political activity.

While President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden congratulated Sestak on his primary victory, the White House’s top press aide demurred on commenting on the controversy, refusing to speculate on the veracity of Sestak’s claims. On Thursday, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs dodged a barrage of Pennsylvania-related questions during his daily briefing, to each he responded: “I don’t have anything to add today.”

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COMMENTS

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  • http://www.libertytreehugger.com reverelth

    the more pedestrian GOP leadership won’t touch…which is why they are losers. Good for Issa.

    I’m sure Obama has some career-Washington-insider-white-guy on his staff like Dennis Blair and Chris Oynes to launch out the torpedo tube.

  • Tbone

    After the trials, Lynch these these traitors.

  • joayn

    I sure like the way “Chairman Issa” sounds.

    Hope he’s been making a list. Can’t. Wait.

  • conservativecrusade

    to punish Obama or Sestak, but it will put on record for the voters that they are two peas in a pod and that both are corrupt. The silence coming from the two camps will be deafening and exposing!

  • Adjoran

    Will he fall on his sword to protect whoever made the offer? This is the sort of issue which kills campaigns before they start (this ain’t Connecticut).

    Or does he tell the truth – as I believe he did in the beginning: it was an honest and angry reaction from a guy who thought he was being pressured to get out. He didn’t stop to consider that the offer was illegal if it attempted to affect a federal election, he was just ticked off they were trying to make him go away.

    Full court press on it – Issa may be poised to dunk!

  • swami7774

    As revereith wrote, Congressional GOPers are usually too wimpy to push something like this.
    If Issa were a Dem he’d be a media hero. He’s not, so he’s not.

  • RedBeard

    Maybe doing the people’s business will catch on with other members of Congress.

  • ashland_avenue

    It may just be that Clintonistas don’t care whether Sestak (their guy) wins or Obama is damaged in the process. Leaving room for Hillary to step in for the D nomination in 2012.

    Before this is dismissed out of hand, consider this http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/05/the_senator_from_sandy_berger.html by Jack Cashill in American Thinker.

    Cashill describes how Sestak was recruited to eliminate 10-term Congressman Curt Weldon (R-PA). Why? Because (in Cashill’s view, of the following:

    ======================================================
    American technical advice was making Chinese threats against Taiwan and even America more than empty boasts. And yet in their relentless drive to raise money, the Clintons were fully prepared to broker that advice. In March 1996, Berger pressed on and managed to send satellite control to Commerce. Said Clinton at the time, ??Industry should like the fact that they will deal with the more ?user friendly’ Commerce system.” Industry did. So did China. And the Clinton campaign coffers swelled accordingly.
    ====================================================

    And Weldon was pressing hearings, getting too close to the issue.

    The bag man? According to Cashill, Sandy Berger:

    Yes, that Sandy Berger:

    “In the way of background, according to the New York Times, Berger served as “the point man for the [Clinton] White House’s China policy.” That policy, unfortunately, had more to do with advancing Bill Clinton’s desperate quest for reelection in 1996 than it did with advancing America’s interests in the world.”

    It was Berger, in Cashill’s view, who recruited Sestak, and Berger, with help from George Soros affliliats, who trumped up charges later dismissed against Weldon.

    And Berger who was dispatched to prevent collateral damage to the Clinton legacy.

    =========================================================
    Berger was still Clinton’s go-to inside guy. As we now know, Berger made four trips to the National Archives. He did so presumably to refresh his memory before testifying first to the Graham-Goss Commission and then to the 9/11 Commission. Berger made his first visit in May 2002, his last in October 2003.

    As we now know too, he stole and destroyed an incalculable number of documents during these four visits. “The full extent of Berger’s document removal,” reports the House Committee, “is not known and never can be known.

    ====================================================

    So far as I know, Cashill’s piece is the only one to have connected all these dots into a coherent picture.