From Byron York:
Republicans are expressing deep skepticism about the just-released statement from the White House on Rep. Joe Sestak’s allegation that the White House offered Sestak a big government job if he would not challenge Sen. Arlen Specter, the White House’s favored candidate in the Pennsylvania Senate primary.
The big question: The White House got Bill Clinton involved for this?
. . . the brief White House statement — it doesn’t quite fill a page and a half — leaves many questions unanswered. “This doesn’t give a full accounting of what Rahm Emanuel’s role in this was, what [deputy White House chief of staff] Jim Messina’s role was, or whether any of the techniques used in the Romanoff matter were used here,” says the investigator. (That is a reference to reports that the White House offered another candidate, Colorado’s Andrew Romanoff, a job if he would not challenge Democratic incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet.) Also, the investigator notes, the offering of uncompensated advisory positions would still violate laws prohibiting exchanging jobs for political acts.
The bottom line is, the brief White House statement falls far short of laying the Sestak matter to rest. The next move is Sestak’s — we’ll likely hear from him soon. And then Republicans will keep asking the questions they have been asking for three months now. Finally, we’ll have to see whether the Democrats who called on the White House and Sestak to come clean are satisfied by this latest version of events.