President Barack Obama has turned his administration into a seemingly never ending game of quid pro quo where the President would gladly trade positions within his administration so his hand-picked candidates would not have to face tough primaries in their senate races.
First, it was Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak being offered an unpaid position with the Obama administration if he were to keep his seat in the House of Representatives and not challenge party-switching Sen. Arlen Specter in the Democratic primary.
Taking a page from the mafia to create plausible deniability, Obama used White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel who in turn had his old boss, former President Bill Clinton to try to convince Sestak to drop out of the race.
Sestak rebuffed the administration's offer he couldn't refuse and defeated Specter in the Democratic primary and will face former Rep. Pat Toomey in November.
Now, Colorado senate candidate Andrew Romanoff reveals that he was also offered jobs within the administration to drop his primary challenge to Sen. Michael Bennet.
It would be rather naive to think this stuff doesn't happen all the time through various back channels and smoke filled rooms and other 1950's political cliches, but for an administration who campaigned on transparency and change, it is rather insulting for this administration to ever try and take the political moral high ground any more.
If George W. Bush was still President and had his father or Karl Rove intervene in the Florida senate race and offer jobs to get Marco Rubio to drop out of the primary in favor of Gov. Charlie Crist, steam would be spewing from Keith Olbermann's ears and he would lament about the ethically challenged Bush administration and how corrupt Bush is and how he should be impeached and imprisoned at Alcatraz.
The fact the two of most vulnerable Democratic incumbents had the President meddle with the race would make one think that these are not isolated incidents.
This is not change and sure isn't hope I can believe in. If Obama were for real, he would let the people who put him in office choose their own elected officials. After all, if the Democratic establishment had its way, Hillary Clinton would have the Democratic Presidential nominee in 2008 and the upstart, inexperienced, one-term senator from Chicago would have been muscled out of the race and told to wait his turn in favor of the former First Lady.
Obama should strive to uphold his campaign message and fire Emanuel and Messina and instruct Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate any and all improprieties that involve political appointments and the administration.
Yet, I bet somehow Obama will figure out a way to blame the Republicans and not admit that his administration is no different than any other.
No Change. No Hope. Just Business as Usual.
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