The New Media Journal | A Cancer is Growing on the Presidency by Paul R. Hollrah

The New Media Journal | A Cancer is Growing on the Presidency by Paul R. Hollrah

In the recent Democratic primary in Pennsylvania, Congressman Joe Sestak, a retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral, defeated Arlen Specter, a five-term member of the Senate who left the Republican Party in 2009 to become a Democrat. The rare Republican-to-Democrat switch was in response to polls indicating that Specter would lose to conservative Pat Toomey in the 2010 GOP primary.

Specter’s willingness to abandon the party that had repeatedly “fallen on its sword” for him for more than thirty years left Barack Obama and congressional Democrats salivating with glee... and for good reason. Specter’s defection represented far more than just one more vote on the Democrat side of the aisle. It represented the all-important 60th vote that would give them the filibuster-proof Senate they needed to force Obama’s neo-fascist agenda through Congress.

Of course, the significance of his defection was not lost on Specter. One of the conditions he reportedly placed before the Democrats was his desire for a clear shot at the 2010 Democratic nomination. He did not want a primary opponent and, judging from the slavering obeisance of the Democratic hierarchy, from Obama on down, it seems clear he was given that assurance.

Most politicians understand that, while a switch from Democrat to Republican is almost always a “wash” (Democrats will hate and despise the defector, while Republicans will welcome him/her as one might welcome a recovered alcoholic), almost no one respects a turncoat who switches from Republican to Democrat. In Specter’s case, his defection only confirmed what Republicans had always suspected about him, while those in the Democratic Party would always question his motives...continuing to think of him as a “closet” Republican.

However, now that Sestak has won the primary and Specter can slither off to wherever it is that old liberals go when they are no longer a danger to society, Sestak has confirmed what he has been saying for months, which is that the White House offered him a top-level government job if he would agree not to run against Specter. In a February 2010 interview with Philadelphia newsman Larry Kane, Sestak was asked, “Were you ever offered a job to get out of this race?” Sestak, clearly a poor liar and completely caught off guard, answered, “Yes.”

Kane asked, “Was it Navy Secretary?” Sestak replied, “No comment.”

Sestak said that he “was called many times,” asking him to pull out. Then Kane asked, “So you were offered a job by someone in the White House?” Sestak answered, “Yes.”

If Sestak was offered a top position in the Obama Administration, it is all but certain that the proffer would have come through either Rahm Emanuel or David Axelrod. And since it is unthinkable that Obama would allow even his most trusted Chicago henchmen to bargain away a cabinet-level or a sub-cabinet-level position without his personal okay, there is no doubt that Obama himself approved the offer...and that equates to an impeachable offense.

Continued