The excuse? It wasn’t a paid job, silly. It was an advisory position intended to keep him out of the U.S. Senate race.

Uncompensated Advisory Board Options. We found that, as the Congressman has publicly and accurately stated, options for Executive Branch service were raised with him. Efforts were made in June and July of 2009 to determine whether Congressman Sestak would be interested in service on a Presidential or other Senior Executive Branch Advisory Board, which would avoid a divisive Senate primary, allow him to retain his seat in the House, and provide him with an opportunity for additional service to the public in a high-level advisory capacity for which he was highly qualified. The advisory positions discussed with Congressman Sestak, while important to the work of the Administration, would have been uncompensated.

White House staff did not discuss these options with Congressman Sestak. The White House Chief of Staff enlisted the support of former President Clinton who agreed to raise with Congressman Sestak options of service on a Presidential or other Senior Executive Branch Advisory Board.

Lefty Marc Ambinder is taking the memo at face value and declaring it a non-story. But of course. The media would like this story to go away as soon as possible. They don’t want to risk further harming the Messiah.

One problem: Nixon denied being a crook, too. No White House is going to admit off the bat that it committed a felony and that the president committed an impeachable offense. Here’s the relevant law:

Whoever, directly or indirectly, promises any employment,
position, compensation, contract, appointment, or other benefit,
provided for or made possible in whole or in part by any Act of
Congress, or any special consideration in obtaining any such
benefit, to any person as consideration, favor, or reward for any
political activity or for the support of or opposition to any
candidate or any political party in connection with any general or
special election to any political office, or in connection with any
primary election or political convention or caucus held to select
candidates for any political office, shall be fined under this
title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

Compensation is one of the benefits outlawed but hardly the only one. In fact, “position” and “appointment” are also felonious. The White House memo is admitting that Sestak was offered a position/appointment in exchange for keeping him out of the primary. That’s illegal.

More: Something smells funny here. If nothing untoward happened and it’s as cut-and-paste simply as the WH makes it out to be, then why did it take months for the first official statement?

Why did Gibbs & Co. dance around questions for so long, even while being accused by a fellow Democrat of committing a felony?

Why did it take party leadership demanding answers and a presidential press conference for an answer, any answer, to come?

And why did the White House think an unpaid position and “service to the public” would keep Sestak from running for the upper chamber of the legislative branch?