Sestak episode underscores Washington ethics problems

Sestak’s background as a former high-ranking military officer would make him a particularly credible witness, Von Spakovsky said.

“I’ve known a lot of military officers, I’ve found they are bound to a sense of duty and honor in a way that most of us aren’t,” he said. “There is more than enough here to open a federal investigation unless there is someone in the Justice Department who has an interest in not investigating the White House.”

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton agrees with Von Spakovsky’s conclusion, saying the Justice Department needs to examine the matter to see if anything improper occurred because it creates an appearance of impropriety.

“Whether it rises to the level of a crime or not is something that only a prosecutor can figure out with a grand jury,” Fitton said. “Ultimately, it is going to be up to the FBI’s public integrity section and [Attorney General Eric] Holder to get on this.

“It definitely deserves investigation; I don’t know too many prosecutors who could look at Sestak’s allegations and not think maybe there is some fire there.”

Fitton said Sestak did the right thing by not accepting whatever post he had been offered in exchange for his dropping out of the race because it shows his character.

This episode underscores the sort of politics that has increasingly alienated voters from both parties and given rise to the Tea Party movement.

“From Judicial Watch’s perspective and my talking with people in the [tea party] movement, fighting the government corruption epidemic in Washington is a key motivator of the tea party activists,” Fitton said.

Government corruption should not simply treated as a problem when the opposing party holds the party in power to task.

Republicans and Democrats ought to hold their own members to the same standards their opponents hold them to because corruption harms everyone in society either directly or indirectly.

The nation needs more politicians like Joe Sestak who put the public interest ahead of their own careers and who have the courage to not participate in deals that carry a possibility of impropriety.

Americans want a democracy, not an elected aristocracy that thinks it is above the law and can do what it pleases without consequences, and the actions of government officials in recent years seems to trend toward the latter.

John Rossomando is a journalist whose work has been featured in numerous publications such as CNSNews.com, Newsmax and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award in 2008 for his reporting.