Give Us Liberty

The Sestak Controversy

by Pejman Yousefzadeh

I invite those who believe that the controversy over whether Joe Sestak was offered a bribe to get out of the Senate race with Arlen Specter was resolved with this sparse memo to imagine what their reaction may have been if they were told a Republican Administration enlisted a former Republican President to encourage a candidate to drop a divisive Republican primary challenge by offering said candidate an unpaid position–and that this was the extent of the Republican Administration’s effort to persuade the candidate to drop his primary challenge. Would they believe that this explanation–finally offered after months of speculation, unanswered questions, and statements from the candidate himself that indicated that something of greater value may have been offered to him–finally puts the controversy to rest?

Come on.

I certainly want to hear from Congressman Sestak as to what he was offered in order to drop a primary challenge, and who made the offer to him, though I won’t be surprised in the least if he decides that the best thing to do–after having unwisely raised the matter in the first place on his own by speaking about the White House’s efforts to get him to drop his primary challenge to Specter–is to fall in line with what the White House is saying. In any event, an independent investigation is clearly needed. After all, does anyone really think that the White House’s persuasion efforts resulted in a single conversation between Sestak and Bill Clinton about a single job offer?