Joe Sestak is not someone worth fighting over. Nor was Monica Lewinski. But the mistake of dealing with ignoble and immoral people can humble the mighty, and President Obama is no exception. He may find himself signing a resignation letter one day soon.
Consider liberal Democrat Rep. Joseph A. Sestak of Pennsylvania’s 7th District. Like some military men who become politicians, Sestak flaunts his service. But in Sestak’s case, Pennsylvanians will discover his record to be less than he promotes, and far short of what they want in a senator. For example, candidate Sestak refers to himself as a former three star admiral, a “greasy” claim, as we used to say at the Naval Academy. In fact, the Chief of Naval Operations fired him as a Vice Admiral because of his brutal “command climate.” Knowing he would never see another three star job, Sestak quickly retired as Rear Admiral. That history is not small stuff. A service reputation—the judgment of peers—accurately defines an officer, and is jealously guarded.
So besides his less than stellar service record, besides an abysmal number of missed votes in congress, besides an anti-gun bias, besides an anti-Israel stance, besides a refusal to respond to Iran’s nuclear weapons program even with sanctions, what else indicates Rep. Joe Sestak might be merely an unprincipled seeker of votes? Two things come to mind.
First, Sestak gave a keynote speech at a fundraiser for the Philadelphia Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations. He said CAIR was a “legitimate organization” doing “good work” even after hearing complaints the Muslim organization was an unindicted co-conspirator in the U.S. v. Holy Land Foundation trial that sent Muslims to jail for supporting terrorists. His nice statements should not be surprising. After all, the Sestak office staffer dealing with complaints about CAIR was Adeeba Al Zaman, a former CAIR communications director. Of course, it is inconceivable that Mr. Sestak believes Muslim votes and campaign contributions are more important than guarding America against terrorists and their supporters.
Second, Joe Sestak is the person who said President Clinton, acting as an agent of the White House, offered him a job if he did not oppose Senator Specter in the Pennsylvania primary. That surprise statement started a cascade of questions about attempts made by the Obama administration to influence election campaigns. Why did Sestak betray the secret offer made by the White House? Why did he imperil President Obama, leader of his own party? Could it be the former Rear Admiral understands the growing anger of American voters? Of course, it is inconceivable that Mr. Sestak believes throwing the White House under the bus will show voters he is not part of President Obama’s unpopular programs.
In any event, the White House fell into disarray. David Axelrod, President Obama’s senior advisor, said there was “no evidence” a bribe was attempted but if it had been, it would be “a serious breach of the law.” But Sestak already said there was such an attempt, and there was a smell of felony in the air. So White House lawyers made sure press secretary Robert Gibbs stuck to his story that he never, ever, mentioned the Sestak affair to President Obama. Finally, they all decided it was White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel who asked President Clinton to call Sestak. Then, while emails are being reviewed, while memos are hovering near the shredder, and while wagons are circling to protect the president from impeachment, the Romanoff affair erupts.
This time it was Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina who called a candidate for the senate with job offers if he would stay out of the Colorado primary. Like Sestak, former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff said that even if there were any offers, he had turned them down flat. And there is that inconvenient email revealed by Romanoff in which Messina describes three government positions in detail. Through it all, the White House insists nothing illegal has been done. Representative Darrell Issa of California, senior Republican on the House Oversight and Reform Committee, disagrees. He noted that federal law prohibits the offer or solicitation of employment or other benefits in exchange for “political activity or for the support or opposition to any candidate or any political party in connection with any general or special election to any political office.”
To judge by just the recent White House admissions, it does look like somebody might have committed a serious crime or two. Besides calling for a year in jail, the federal felony in question is an impeachable offense, and Rep. Issa wants the White House to give him a letter stating no emails or memos or documents pertaining to the issues will be destroyed. It seems that even the media are not buying the usual White House pooh-pooh, and Primarygate will not fade away. On top of which, whether or not press secretary Gibbs ever discusses the bribery allegations with his boss, there is another list of domestic and foreign disasters that some think will bring down the president anyway.
In, The Coming Resignation of Barack Obama, articulate Peter Ferrara suggests even the Democrat Party, after suffering grievous losses in this year’s elections, will join calls for the president to resign. Ferrara’s thesis rests on America’s growing awareness of the president’s demonstrated inability to deal with adverse events, like the Gulf oil spill. That inability, he suggests, will be compounded by the economy falling into a death spiral. He notes a year of depression-level unemployment, a record-smashing deficit of $1.6 trillion, and taxes rising to where the top 1% of taxpayers already pay more than the bottom 95% combined. The cap and trade tax is a blunder waiting to happen, he adds, that will be “a greater Republican Party builder than Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt combined.” Then he notes the Obama administration’s willingness to live with Iran’s nuclear weapons as an example of an invitation to “War Through Weakness” instead of Reagan’s “Peace Through Strength.”
Ferrara pours heady stuff, but when the glass is empty we remember that President Obama is convinced of his messianic virtues, and will never resign. Unless impeachment gives him no choice.
Chet Nagle is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and the author of IRAN COVENANT.