Posted on 06/09/2010 9:39:40 AM PDT by Qbert
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) submitted a formal referral for two top White House officials to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) for allegedly having violated a law prohibiting federal officials from using official resources for political purposes.
Issa, the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, submitted a complaint to the OSC accusing White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and his deputy, Jim Messina, of using official resources to help discourage two Democratic primary candidates from waging challenges to incumbents.
The California Republican has led an effort to investigate the administration's role in discouraging Rep. Joe Sestak from challenging Sen. Arlen Specter in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary for Senate by way of allegedly offered him a position. Issa has also picked up on reports that the White House tried to lure Democratic attorney Andrew Romanoff out of a challenge to Sen. Michael Bennet (D) in Colorado with the offer of potential jobs.
Emanuel, Issa wrote, "was leveraging the power and access of his official position" in trying to affect the races.
The administration has acknowledged activities in the races — in Pennsylvania by sending former President Bill Clinton to talk to Sestak, and in Colorado by e-mail exchanges between Messina and Romanoff.
But the White House has maintained that no formal offers of a job were ever made to either candidate, and a memo prepared by White House Counsel Bob Bauer released last month denies any wrongdoing in the races.
"A final determination of whether or not Mr. Emanuel's actions violated the Hatch Act is rightfully made by OSC investigators following a thorough review, not by the Office of the White House Counsel," Issa said.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Go go go!!
They will look as asked. Just like the Russians investigating the South Korean ship sinking...nothing to see here
Good for Issa.
Amen
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list.
GO ISSA!!
Way to go Issa!
Now watch your back, because you know the Whitehouse and all their minions will be coming after you hard now.
Does anyone think this will grow legs?
Maybe- if they keep the heat up.
No. If they can’t get an investigation together it will fall by the wayside and be forgotten.
Even if it fails this round, it will be resurrected IF we can take the US House in November which will give Issa more substantial investigating authority. We also must wait if any tangential information comes out in the Blago trial.
Issa’s the BEST. Great attack dog who doesn’t give up. I love this guy! Been watching him for some time now.....
And I suppose all this took place and Obama was unaware of it? Right.
Good for Issa.
KEEP it alive!
This goes all the way up to the POTUS. It’s a start.
From the article:
"A final determination of whether or not Mr. Emanuel's actions violated the Hatch Act is rightfully made by OSC investigators following a thorough review, not by the Office of the White House Counsel," Issa said.
I said at the very beginning, this is going to come down to Emanuel choosing to go to jail vs. exposing the fact that he got his orders from his boss ... and we pretty much know which way that one would go, because 0bama can't pardon him and remain politically viable.
“I said at the very beginning, this is going to come down to Emanuel choosing to go to jail vs. exposing the fact that he got his orders from his boss”
I concur Obama’s toast if it comes down to this choice: Rahm isn’t the kind of guy who will sacrifice his entire political future for a dirt-bag boss. But it remains to be seen how this plays out. Recall there was more than one avenue left unpursued by Ken Starr in his investigation of Bill Clinton, culminating in an impeachment without conviction.
There surely has been technically a violation of the law, but also a widespread perception that everyone does it and/or this is how politics works. Bill Clinton couldn’t and didn’t argue that everyone lies before grand juries etc. Then again, he had far more political support within his own party than Obama appears to have now, so that’s definitely a wild card that doesn’t play in BHO’s favor.
The man got away with treason when he sold Weapons technology for campaign cash.
He avoided jail for all his crimes, in part, because we would never put a president in jail.
Here's the rub. Rahm and all his buddies were in on the Clinton crime spree and feel invincible because of it. They are about to learn that hatchet men with blood on their hands do indeed go down. January, if we have the house, Rahm is getting a cholonoscopy.
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