Huelskamp also said he thinks it’s a shame that Obama puts up with behavior like this from his cabinet secretaries.
“People are always concerned about this with the president — when does the campaign begin and the official stuff end?” Huelskamp said. “But, when you have a secretary, she knows what the line is: She’s well-versed and well-trained in all of this, and she should pay a very severe price. I think it’s an embarrassment to the administration. But hey, so is [Attorney General] Eric Holder. The thing about President Obama is he has really held onto people who have really been a political albatross for him. It’s just unprecedented.”
It appears Sebelius’ illegal Dalton primary endorsement sparked the OSC investigation, as that was reported first in the Charlotte Observer two days after the North Carolina event. It was later discovered that Sebelius also endorsed Obama at the event.
“Does the Obama administration have a favorite in the N.C. Democratic primary for governor?” asked the Charlotte Observer’s Tim Funk of Sebelius’ endorsement of Dalton in a Feb. 27, 2012, article.
In a follow-up article shortly after, Sebelius’ team walked back her endorsement of Dalton — and told Funk that Sebelius’ political comments came outside her prepared remarks. A senior Democratic Party official blamed the whole controversy — which has now blown up into Sebelius having broken a law — on Dalton.
According to Funk, a high-ranking Washington-based Democratic Party official accused Dalton of “misleading Sebelius during a backstage meeting by presenting himself as the only Democratic candidate in the race.”
“It was a bush-league move,” said the party official, according to Funk. “It was a clear lie of omission … and it left a bad taste in the mouth of party leaders in Washington.”
