Expose Obama
April 2nd, 2010 By Floyd and Mary Beth Brown, Expose Obama
Obama is practicing Chicago Style Politics
After watching Obama twist arms, beg, borrow and steal to pass ObamaCare, it may come as no surprise to some that Obama’s administration has offered federal jobs for political purposes to two Democratic candidates. What ought to catch people’s attention is that this action constitutes a federal crime.
Did Barack Obama or members of his administration directly violate federal law by offering federal jobs to Rep. Joe Sestak and former Colorado legislator Andrew Romanoff? The best way to answer these and a myriad of other ethical questions is for Congress to join Rep. Darrell Issa in calling for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate this corruption.
Title 18, Chapter 11, Section 211 of the United States Code states that "Whoever solicits or receives … any….thing of value, in consideration of the promise of support or use of influence in obtaining for any person any appointive office or place under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both."
The Obama administration has been accused by two Democratic primary candidates, Joe Sestak and Andrew Romanoff, of offering them high profile jobs. The jobs allegedly offered included the Secretary of the Navy and a position within the U.S. Agency for International Development. In return for these favors the two would withdraw from their Senate challenges to Obama’s allies, Sen. Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania and Sen. Michael Bennet in Colorado.
The Denver Post, hardly a right-wing newspaper, reported that “Jim Messina, President Barack Obama’s deputy chief of staff and a storied fixer in the White House political shop, suggested a place for Romanoff might be found in the administration and offered specific suggestions, according to several sources who described the communication to The Denver Post. Romanoff turned down the overture, which included mention of a job at USAID, the foreign aid agency, sources said.”
The White House subsequently denied the story and claimed that no job was offered. But with no investigation into this corruption, how will we know how deep the rabbit hole runs?
In February, Pennsylvania Congressman Joe Sestak launched a new charge of bribery by accusing the Obama White House of offering him the Secretary of the Navy job in exchange for his agreeing to abandon his race against Specter. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that this exchange occurred during a TV interview with Comcast anchor Larry Kane: “‘Was it secretary of the Navy?’ Kane asked. ‘No comment,’ Sestak said.’Was it [the job] high-ranking?’ Kane asked. Sestak said yes, but added that he would ‘never leave’ the Senate race for a deal.”
Sestak has later confirmed that yes, he was offered a job, but he has been unwilling to go into greater details. After stonewalling and avoiding the question for weeks, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stated that he talked to people in the White House about the claim and that, "I’m told whatever conversations have been had are not problematic." He added that the incident is "in the past."
We hate to rain on Mr. Gibbs’ parade, but the incident is hardly “in the past.” If the president of the United States or someone high up in his administration committed a felony the public deserves to know about it. Whoever committed that felony must be brought to justice. This administration is no stranger to corruption, as witnessed by the billions in sweet deals to purchase Congressional votes for ObamaCare.
Obama even tried to influence Democratic Congressman Jim Matheson, who voted against the initial health bill, by appointing his brother Scott M. Matheson, Jr. to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. While this corruption is ill fitting for the White House, these incidents pale in comparison to the most recent allegations. The offering of a federal job in order to affect an election constitutes a direct violation of federal law and must be investigated.
Fortunately for those of us who still believe in the rule of law, Rep. Darell Issa, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has called for a special prosecutor to probe these allegations. Congressman Issa is confident that a special prosecutor will be appointed. "What you have is a credible allegation by a member of Congress of a felony," Issa told Fox News. "It is a felony to offer somebody a federal job in order to get them to affect an election."
We are watching our very system of government corrupted before our very eyes. We encourage all Americans who still believe in our Constitution and the rule of law to join us and Rep. Issa in calling for a special prosecutor to investigate these crimes of the Obama administration.
