Knee Deep in the Muck [UPDATED]
It almost certainly costs me traffic, but I just don’t blog that much about scandals. Both sides have plenty of them, they’re usually not more than he said/she said, and half the time if you blog too soon about them you end up looking like an idiot.
And I certainly need no help with that last bit.
But the Sestak Stuff is just too good to pass up, with today’s breaking news that Bill Clinton served as White House emissary to Joe Sestak. Here’s what the White House says happened:
The report said White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel enlisted Clinton’s help as a go-between with Sestak. Clinton agreed to raise the offer of a seat on a presidential advisory board or another executive board if Sestak dropped his bid, “which would avoid a divisive Senate primary,” the report said.
We get additional details from The Caucus report:
The White House disputed Republican claims that the conversations might be illegal or improper. “There was no such impropriety,” Robert F. Bauer, the White House counsel, said in a memo released to reporters. “The Democratic Party leadership had a legitimate interest in averting a divisive primary fight and a similarly legitimate concern about the congressman vacating his seat in the House.”
But further down, The Caucus quotes the relevant federal statute:
Federal law makes it a crime for anyone “who directly or indirectly, promises any employment, position, compensation, contract, appointment, or any other benefit” to someone else “as consideration, favor, or reward for any political activity or for the support of or opposition to any candidate or any political party in connection with any general or special election to any political office.” It is also illegal for a government official to use “his official authority for the purpose of interfering with, or affecting, the nomination or the election of any candidate” for Senate.
Four things seem pretty clear here.
1. The law was almost certainly broken.
2. It’s a damn silly law in this instance, outlawing a perfectly reasonable party function, and ought to be amended.
3. Republicans would be idiots to try and get charges filed – yet again! – against Bill Clinton. Don’t go there.
4. Republicans would be smart to keep this in the news, Chinese water torture style, all the way through the November election.
But honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if the GOP got everything wrong.
UPDATE: Elsewhere at PJ Media, my boss says that –
Frankly, I have a tad of nostalgia for Clinton because, Monica excluded, he was a much more sensible (and honest – believe it or not?) man than Obama and far less of a threat to our country and the world. Not nearly as much went wrong under eight years of Clinton’s watch than in less than two years of Obama’s. It’s pathetic, actually, that Bill is now so willing, as apparently he was, to carry water for the new President in this kind of cheesy operation. Can you imagine George W. Bush doing such a thing for some Republican president? I can’t.
I’d have even more nostalgia for Bill Clinton, if only he’d go away.
ANOTHER UPDATE: I’d forgotten that the White House tried the very same stunt here in Colorado a while back — probably because the Denver Post refuses to cover the story.
The GOP has been most effective at proving they are completely ineffective at maximizing any random event for political gain. #facepalm
I think that this is a case where the smoke is more valuable than the fire.
Disagree on point 1.
This was certainly sleazy, of course all of politics is sleazier than Lady GaGa video, but it wasn’t illegal.
Yes, it was almost certainly illegal.
And yes, the GOP will, under the stellar leadership of Michael Steele, get every single stinking thing wrong, endangering all we are working so hard to change.
And then, Mr. Steel will send out another ridiculous survey, asking us if we think unbridled spending is a good idea, and do we love liberty. Yes? Great! Send me $50 so I can destroy any hope of progress toward restoring the nation.
Always the optimist, Kathy, when it comes to Steele.
When I don’t think too hard about it the Clinton 90s seem to have been good years for this country. But then I remember all the domestic problems and international evils that were either birthed or matured under his “the Soviet Union’s gone” there’s nothing left to worry about policies.
Al Qaeda grew to maturity under our nose’s and the plans and actions for their second attack on the Twin Towers were well advanced by the end of Clinton’s last term. It was under Clinton that we abandoned what little aid we were giving Afghanistan as the more visually compelling break up of Yugoslavia diverted our attention. Overall the Clinton administrations largest and most pervasive errors were due to underutilization of military power. Going into Somalia for “humanitarian” reason and then allowing the current nitwit politicos “Rumsfeld” the military component was truly despicable and led to our shameful departure. This gave Osama bin Laden the measure of his enemy. Under Clinton we passed on several opportunities to capture or kill Osama. We did this in one instance because he was in the company of several Saudis, that moment would have been a good time to broaden our definition of acceptable collateral damage. We squandered another chance when his host nation offered to simply give him to us, our problem? What would be his legal status? So we turned down the opportunity to hold and interrogate him. While I’m not a fan of Spy novel fiction I’m sure some guidance as to how to hold undefined enemy combatants existed. While killing enemy combatants is not the only way to defeat an enemy it is a productive exorcise while fine tuning you’re other winning strategies.
Almost every worthwhile thing Clinton gets credit for from the 90s domestically he was forced into by being squeezed by the Republican’s control of congress and his left flank in his own party. If the Social Democrats had had a few more seats or their far left wing controlled more of the seats they did have Most of the positive accomplishments of his administration would never have happened.
It was under Clinton that Fannie and Freddy gained nearly unregulated authority, mainly due to Republican inattentiveness; it was during this time that bad loan policies became acceptable and then became policy in the interest of homeowner social justice. The end of the 90s is remembered for the “High tech bubble” bursting but the housing bubble was already well inflated and growing.
I usually don’t try to bum people out especially people I like but if someone starts waxing nostalgic about the Clinton era…..
Left out in the quoting of the law above and in the article, but falling between the two pieces, is this: “provided for or made possible in whole or in part by any Act of Congress”
Unless these unpaid advisory boards are a result of Congressional action, sounds to me like they’re in the clear. Had it been a position that was paid and governmental, and thus funded by the Congress, it’d be a different story.
Someone asked me if Obama made me miss Bush as president. Hell, Obama makes me miss Clinton.
So who is surprised?
Obama is what you get when you cross the Chicago Machine with the Chicago Seven.
“Obama is what you get when you cross the Chicago Machine with the Chicago Seven.”
Bohemond wins the thread.
Could someone send “Adobe Walls” a style guide and a grammar reference? That’s about a sad piece of run-on, solid-block-o’-text I’ve seen in a while. Apparently Clinton was responsible for all the evils of the world between 1993 & 2001. (rolls eyes) Just like Dubya was responsible 2001-2009.
I agree with Roger Simon. I would much, much, much prefer Bill Clinton -warts & all- running things right now than Barry Obama. Said that to one of my liberal friends (she was a Hillary supporter) recently and she got a big, silly smile on her face. I don’t think she ever expected me to say that. Heh.
In his ideals, I don’t think Clinton is all that different from Obama, but Clinton is smarter and more practical.
Clinton knows to keep away from the true radicals and, don’t forget, his first two years were a disaster of such proportions that in 1994 the Republicans made a sweep of congress. Clinton tacked to the center because he had to and he was smart enough to, not because he wanted to.