Correction from out west-

A Davy Crockett tall tale:
His military service speaks for itself. He’s the kind of persistent candidate who, if he knew that 10 registered voters were meeting at the Burger King at the New Stanton Service Plaza on the Turnpike, he’d be there shaking hands and buying chocolate frosties.

REALITY:
Sestak is too cheap to buy chocolate frosties, if you are implying he would buy them for someone else. Completely out of the question. Otherwise great story.

I think what people don’t realize is that Sestak isn’t a talented politician at all. Although I’ll be voting for Sestak in November, I supported Specter for this issue among many. Sestak is a terrible fundraiser and his stump speeches are painful. Let’s face the facts: Sestak has beaten two tough politicians. One was Curt Weldon, who was mired in a huge scandal. Sestak would not have beaten Weldon if that hadn’t happened. Another was Arlen Specter, who had been a Republican for 40 years and lost in an anti-incumbent year.

Now, I’m hopeful that Sestak will run a good campaign and win in the fall – goodness knows Toomey would be disastrous. If Sestak can make it about issues and not personalities or petty politics, he will win. But he’s got to move past this White House job offer crap first.

Bryan H:

Sestak isn’t the one who keeps bringing this up. Seems to me to be Fox et. al. via Toomey? Heaven knows Fox is making a big deal about it.

A great article by Nathan Shrader.

Nathan-
I’d add in a little bit of good-old-fashion luck as a fifth element which includes missteps by the opponent.
With Weldon, the FBI raid sealed the deal.
With Specter, Sestak lucked out that Specter made the error of not advertising earlier, that the negative attacks backfired, and that they were able to find a Specter clip out-of-context (that looked in context).

All the hard-work and everything else you mentioned got Sestak within striking-distance of “luck”, but if Sestak had caught the unlucky breaks, it would have been a lot closer and maybe a different outcome.

This Jobs-question could turn into good or bad luck once all the facts come out.

Leftist MSNBC talksters have also been fulminating about the public’s allegedly urgent right to know with regards to this job offer. The notion it would have been illegal I must leave up to lawyers. But anyone who thinks jobs cannot be offered in a democracy as a reward for some form of political allegiance, has a great deal of political history to rethink.

I’m with Sestak on this point. Job offers, outside formal hiring contexts like union halls and civil service, are discreet matters about which grownups typically keep their mouths closed.

Tony-

Sestak surrendered its discreetness when he paraded it around… you cant have it both ways.

Love Sestak – Yes, it’s only Fox talking about this. Except all those other people, like CNN and MSNBC, and Washington Post, Politico, the Hill, Meet the Press, etc. He has repeated the claim a half dozen times to various outlets. Sestak has dug himself into a hole. He either was offered a job, most likely by Rahmbo. Or, he’s a liar that simply exaggerated a conversation to paint himself as an outsider during the primary. Either way, something has done something dirty. Blame Fox if you want, but this is dirty politics. I thought Democrats were supposed to be the most transparent congress in the history of America. Didn’t Pelosi say that?

Tony-
I guess Sestak bailed on the acting like a “grown up” part of your argument.

Sestak being “cute” by not revealing the position, fueling speculation that it was high ranking and implying added importance. Sestak’s not even eligible for Secretary of the Navy until around the time his term is up anyway, so it wasn’t available in June 2009.

John -

I’ve been with Sestak since before he declared, so I knew about it from the beginning, but it didn’t strike me as important.

Umm, Pelosi didn’t want to impeach Bush either. Didn’t agree with that.

Fox is rousing the rabble, as usual. Fox is always the primary pot stirrer. Who knows, could be ol’ Arlen with sour grapes, or Toomey as I wrote.

Love Sestak-
You knew about “what” from the beginning? The job offer?
Why don’t say what the job supposedly was, and we can see if it matches the press release in the next few days. You can’t say “Yeah, that’s what it was” after the fact.
Right now, you’re just another anonymous blowhard with a Sestak fetish. No paper will quote you as a news source. So, spill the beans here.

You wrote:
I’ve been with Sestak since before he declared ???
1) Been rooting for him?
or
2) Been a member of the campaign?

Let see if I can wrap my thoughts around the headline.

“Alleged job offer presents distraction in marquee Senate race”

So the attempt to see if any laws were broken is a distraction? Political theatre trumps the actual application of the law? Political process over integrity?

The article, if written properly, would have had the last paragraph first. But the writer, as a political consultant, surely has a primary interest in the political intrigue.

Both parties do it in the time before the announcement of a potential canadate prior to petition signing. Sestak was amazing in the early clips saying he supported women and gays rights so what is not progressive about being the dude who sponsored card check??? My son who is in the private sector really needs it for his job. The company deals with healthcare items and sells to the hospitals that pay for the items with Medicare and Social Security funds but is slowly but surely building factories in Mexico! Now that is an issue we should demand our state senators on the federal level fight against instead of trying to get the son of a great Massad officer.

Tony,

Sestak can’t have it both ways. He used it as political ammo in the campaign against Specter, now he has to deal with the other side of that coin.

As for “rethinking political history”, the history isn’t relevant. Hatch Act was in ’93 and amended ’97.

95 South,

I stand by the way in which the article was written. I’m not in favor of political theater trumping all other concerns. However, I’m in favor of dealing in reality, which means that these sorts of “deals” are common. Anyone who says otherwise is residing in fantasyland.

Second, I’m for putting democracy first. Voters deserve a serious campaign about legitimate issues. Toomey and Sestak have the ability, opportunity, and responsibility to provide just that. Pennsylvanians will be better off with a race focused on substance and not silly “gotcha” games like this.

NRS

Ma’am, what are you talking about? I read your post 5 times, and now have a headache.

NS, commiting a Federal Crime, if true, is not a “gotcha game”. These deals are probably common, the only difference, is this one has the disinfectant of sunlight.

It this allegation is true. it is a legitimate campaign issue. in 2010 and 2012.

My problem with your article, is it does not assign any severity to the allegation, rather supposes that it a distraction that is superfluous.