OH NO - JOBSGATE!

Remember that simmering controversy about Arlen Specter's primary opponent Joe Sestak making the claim that he was offered a job - presumably Secretary of the Navy - by the Obama administration in return for his dropping out of the race with Specter? The controversy now billed as "Jobsgate" is back thanks in large part to a short yet salient quote from none other than Arlen Specter and caught by Jeffrey Lord at the American Spectator.

That quote?

"There's a crime called misprision of a felony. Misprision of a felony is when you don't report a crime. So you're getting into pretty deep areas here in these considerations."

However, the episode with Sestak, in which he outwardly admitted to being offered a job by the White House in a recorded interview, is not the only one. As Lord points out, a similar scenario allegedly played out last September in Colorado:

September 27, 2009 -- The Denver Post reports that Obama White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina allegedly offered a job in the Obama administration to ex-Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff if Romanoff dropped his planned primary challenge to incumbent U.S. Senator Michael Bennet. Romanoff refuses comment and runs anyway.

One incidence may indicate an obscure anomaly. Two may indicate a trend, especially since the behavior of White House press Secretary seems to indicate there is absolutely no desire on the part of the Obama administration to explore the matter or answer questions relative to it. By the way, Lord has an extremely interesting take on why Gibbs may not be responding to these questions. Be sure to read the whole thing.

Peter Boyles of KHOW in Denver has been doggedly attempting to get Romanoff on his program with Lord in order to respond to these claims and clear the air. As Lord reports, Romanoff's office has gone into hiding on this story:

...in Colorado, Democratic Senate candidate Romanoff is apparently now hiding under his bed. Denver's KHOW talk radio host Peter Boyles invites Romanoff on-air to discuss the Post story with me and find out exactly what Romanoff knows and when he knew it. Romanoff's campaign refuses the opportunity to let the public in on these behind-closed door dealings, saying the issue is "old news."

Again, taken by itself, perhaps it'd just be the stench of one dead fish that could be discreetly placed in the trash by the White House but when juxtaposed with Sestak's actual admission that a job was offered to him makes this story very important. That doesn't even take into consideration all of the back room deals - bribes - made or offered during the health care debate. Perhaps the likes of Ben Nelson in Nebraska and Mary Landrieu in Louisiana may have something to contribute in this regard.

Additionally, be sure to read Lord's piece and take note of all the transcripts he cites of Gibbs being asked about this bubbling scandal in which Gibbs repeatedly seems to plead the fifth. Coincidentally, the number of times Gibbs declined to respond was five as of this writing. Although that number is likely to climb.

In response to Romanoff's claim that the story is old news, Lord points to Specter's brief, yet stinging statement about it being a felony to remain silent when aware of a felony. If correct, there could be a significant number of people in the administration on the hook here.

Days after Romanoff dodges Boyles and myself, Senator Arlen Specter says that if anyone gets such an offer -- and in this case that would be Romanoff in Colorado and Sestak in Pennsylvania -- and didn't report it, they could go to jail for committing a felony.

Stunningly, this would presumably also include anyone on the Obama White House staff who knew one of their colleagues had offered such a job -- which is to say committed a crime -- and didn't report it.

Lord goes on to make some very viable comparisons between this scandal is being handled by the administration and how the Nixon administration handled Watergate before it blew completely open. In fact, if the health care bill goes down, Obama will have a lot of angry people he'll have to deal with, people currently in his camp. Jobsgate has all the early markings of a HUGE scandal.

Earlier post here.

The cast of characters who very well could be tied to this is long indeed. Chief of staff Emanuel, Deputy Chief of Staff Messina, Anita Dunn's husband Robert Bauer, White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs, and many more. Possibly many more than what it initially appears to be.

Again, read it all.