By PHILIP ELLIOTT
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – Forced to disclose backstage political bargaining, President Barack Obama’s embarrassed White House said Friday it had enlisted Bill Clinton to try to ease Rep. Joe Sestak out of Pennsylvania’s Senate primary with a job offer.
Nothing wrong with that, the White House said. Oh, yes, there was, Republicans countered.
The administration admission – it said Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel had asked the former president to call Sestak – left many questions unanswered, and it seemed unlikely the issue had been put to rest. For Obama, the revelations called into question his repeated promises to run an open government that was above back room deals. And for Sestak, they raised questions why he kept talking about up the offer – a 60-second conversation, he said Friday – in the first place.