Wednesday, September 30, 2009
BARACK OBAMA, HORSERACE
Culture of Corruption, Part Forty-Five, White House Edition
In Colorado:
Not long after news leaked last month that Andrew Romanoff was determined to make a Democratic primary run against Sen. Michael Bennet, Romanoff received an unexpected communication from one of the most powerful men in Washington.
Jim Messina, President Barack Obama's deputy chief of staff and a storied fixer in the White House political shop, suggested a place for Romanoff might be found in the administration and offered specific suggestions, according to several sources who described the communication to The Denver Post.
Romanoff turned down the overture, which included mention of a job at USAID, the foreign aid agency, sources said.
We'll never see prosecution of this, but this seems to be at least in the neighborhood of violating a federal bribery statute, no? That statute seems to be written pretty broadly, and an appointment would seem to be "something of value" under the section that defines the crime as anyone who "directly or indirectly gives, offers, or promises anything of value to any public official, former public official, or person selected to be a public official, for or because of any official act performed or to be performed by such public official, former public official, or person selected to be a public official."
09/30 10:50 AM
Share
