How stupid do they think we are? Dumb question!
President Barack Obama wanted Sen. Arlen Specter - the former Republican, now a Democrat - to have a clear path to victory in the Pa. primary election. And U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak was the fly in the ointment.
What to do? What to do? Well, we’ll call in former President Bill Clinton and ask him to run interference for President Obama. And Clinton did. Now get this - according to Clinton and the White House, Clinton went to Sestak and offered him the deal of a lifetime.
Here it is: “OK, Mr. Congressman, we’d like you to quit your job and give up on your run for the Senate, and if you do we’ll give you an unpaid advisory job in the Obama administration.” How’s that sound?
Well, it sounds ridiculous. And silly.
How much does Sestak make as a U.S. Representative? About $174,000 a year. How much would he make as a U.S. Senator? About $174,000 a year.
So he’s supposed to give up both jobs, for which he’d be paid $174,000 a year, to become an “unpaid” adviser to the Obama administration just so Specter can get a free ride to the General Election in November?
No one in his right mind would have taken that offer if, indeed, that was the actual offer. How stupid does the White House think we are? There was no improper conduct, White House Counsel Robert Bauer said. No one in the administration discussed the offer with Sestak, he said.
C’mon. Give me a break. Maybe it’s true that no one in the administration talked directly with Sestak, but if someone in the administration talked directly with former President Clinton, who in turn talked directly with Sestak, then the end result is that someone in the administration talked directly with Sestak. To suggest otherwise is to be one brick short of a load.
If President Obama doesn’t want to tell us what he offered Sestak to step aside for Arlen Specter’s benefit, well then don’t tell us.
I might have been born yesterday, but I wasn’t born in the dark yesterday. This explanation does not fly with me.
And I’m thrilled that Sestak gave Specter a good thrashing last week. If that doesn’t send a message to the White House, nothing will.