MSNBC: Clinton offered Sestak a job with no money and no power!

[Joanne98]

That's not a bribe that's an insult. Insulting people isn't against the law! End of story!

[LakeSamish706]

1. Not very believable though is it? n/t

[Joanne98]

2. Maybe Obama wanted Sestak to stay in the race but didn't want Specter to know.

That's a triple back flip!

[Pirate Smile]

4. They didn't want to give Sestak another job. They wanted him to keep his House seat.

[Frances]

6. Well, what do you think happened?

I think the White House had to be loyal to Spector as they had promised.

So they made an offer that Sestak could refuse.

[Dogmudgeon]

12. It fits in with a lot of fantasies, though

The Clenis-hating Left eats that stuff up, and MSNBC turns it into ratings. It turned the Hillary-v-Obama contest into a Life-and-Death Battle For The Republic, so this latest piece of Clenis Theater is inevitable.

Granted, the Big Dog certainly knows how to wheel and deal. But a lot of people, particularly the "My-Conscience-Can-Lick-Your-Conscience" club, adjudge politics as if it was all the War In Heaven Between Good and Evil. This episode has been nothing more than the neutering and graceful turning-out-to-pasture of Arlen Specter. I'm 100% positive that Sestak's victory caused a massive collective sigh of relief in Washington as well as in my own Pennsylvania homeland. Because, for many of us in Penn's Greene Countrye Woods, that's exactly what it was.

And better yet, the Party now owes Sestak a long, fruitful honeymoon period. Sestak, for instance, will have a lot of pull when the curtain finally falls on DADT -- and he may be able to accelerate its demise. So I weep for neither Arlen nor Joe.

Politics is, for good or for bad, about wheeling and dealing. Bill has so much enthusiasm for it that he occasionally makes a fool of himself. But I'd much rather that WE be the experts at it than the Republicans. And Bill Clinton lives to seek forgiveness rather than permission. We DUers have a bad habit of finding the dark cloud in front of every silver lining. Sestak v Specter was always a win-win deal, but we ended up with the bigger win.

--d!

[Captain Hilts]

3. Agree. nt

[Subdivisions]

5. Why isn't there more discussion of this Sestak job-offer thing here? n/t

[tavalon]

11. Because the actual story, today and for the foreseeable future

is BP destroying the Gulf of Mexico. As it should be.

This is a non story.

[tyne]

7. They offered him

a position on an advisory board. That's not really a job. It's an honor.

[DefenseLawyer]

8. Why is this a story?

Newsflash, deals like that are made all the time on both sides of the isle.

[Joanne98]

10. Because the media keeps talking about it.

[bvar22]

15. Deals like that ARE made all the time...

..to Clear the Field for your pet candidate.
In this case, clear the field of Democrats so that their pet Republican could be installed in the Senate, moving the Democratic Party even further to The Right.

[Jennicut]

16. Yeah, but why not offer Sestak a better deal if they really wanted him out of the way?

This was a half-offer. A barely there offer.

[bvar22]

18. The why make it at all?

No upside,
and the blow back for the White House (interfering in local Primaries and losing) is a big negative.
I suspect that the "offer" was a little stronger than they have admitted.

[Jennicut]

19. Two things.

It was either stronger then offered or it was ham-handed to appease Spector.

[bvar22]

21. Oh.

More 12th dimensional Chess.

OTOH, maybe they just got caught messing in a local Primary backing the wrong conservative candidate.

Isn't it a shame that a hard core long term Republican like Specter can feel right at home in today's Democratic Party, and even have the President campaigning for him against a Democrat?
Specter hasn't changed.

[Jennicut]

22. Specter was a moderate Rethug. The Rethugs kicked those kind out.

Where else are they going to go? Not saying they should be in the Dem party but the Republicans want "purity". Specter never changed. The Rethug party changed. There used to be a lot of liberal Republicans, especially in New England. They are all gone now. The Rethugs wanted to primary him for being too moderate for their tastes so he switched parties.

I never said it was chess, I said the WH wanted to make Specter feel they were doing something to help ensure his win. What kind of job could they offer Sestak and not get in legal trouble? It does not seem like the Sec of Navy job was going to be viable when someone else was annoucned for the job in March, before Specter switched parties.

[NoodleyAppendage]

20. Because Sestak is honest and honorable enough to state what happened.

You can have scuzzy deals...you just can't talk about them. That's the difference. Also, it demonstrates that Obama/Rahm have little regard for liberal/progressive candidates or ideals when they butt up against pragmatic Washington bullshit.

J

[crazyjoe]

9. end of story? because you say so? I don't think so

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bluestateguy]

14. Friday before Memorial Day weekend news dump

I have a feeling.

[Autumn]

17. deja vu ? It seems like we

have been here before, not the same old non scandal,but aching familiar. Good thing we have all that dried powder we saved by not investigating the previous administration.