White House admits it tried to ease Sestak out of Pa. race

WASHINGTON - Forced to disclose backstage political bargaining, President Barack Obama's embarrassed White House acknowledged 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 backroom deals. And for Sestak, they raised questions why he ever brought up the offer - a 60-second conversation, he said Friday - in the first place.

"I wasn't interested, and that was the bottom line," Sestak said on the steps of the Capitol.

Seeking to quiet the clamor over a possible political trade, the White House released a report describing the offer that was intended to clear a path for Sen. Arlen Specter to win the Democratic nomination. Sestak stayed in the race and eventually defeated Specter to become the Democratic nominee, ending Specter's 30-year Senate tenure.

After a week of silence, Sestak answered reporters' questions on last summer's offer.

He said he cut Clinton short after hearing only a few words about a possible post on a presidential board and said the former president immediately dropped the subject.

"There was nothing wrong that was done," Sestak said.

White House Counsel Robert Bauer rendered his own verdict in a two-page report that said there was no improper conduct in the offer. The report did not reveal whether Obama was aware of Clinton's role.

Rep. Darrell Issa, the top Republican on the House oversight committee who unsuccessfully had sought a Department of Justice investigation, said Obama had become a part of the Washington culture he decried.

"It's pretty clear from the . . . statement that they intended to get him out of the race by offering him a position, and that's illegal and it's unethical," Issa said.