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Jim Messina in the Oval Office
In a statement, Romanoff outlined how the White House dangled three government jobs:
In September 2009, shortly after the news media first reported my plans to run for the Senate, I received a call from Jim Messina, the President’s deputy chief of staff. Mr. Messina informed me that the White House would support Sen. Bennet. I informed Mr. Messina that I had made my decision to run.
Mr. Messina also suggested three positions that might be available to me were I not pursuing the Senate race. He added that he could not guarantee my appointment to any of these positions. At no time was I promised a job, nor did I request Mr. Messina’s assistance in obtaining one.
Later that day, I received an email from Mr. Messina containing descriptions of three positions (email attached). I left him a voicemail informing him that I would not change course.
You can read Messina’s email to Romanoff below. The three jobs in the email were:
- Deputy Assistant Administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean, USAID
- Director, Office of Democracy and Governance, USAID
- Director, U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA)
It’s worth noting that unlike the unpaid position purportedly offered by Bill Clinton to Pennsylvania Senate candidate Joe Sestak, all three of these positions appear to be paid government jobs.
Colorado’s Democratic primary is August 10. This could be Andrew Romanoff’s opportunity to close the gap with Bennet; at the very least, it’s a problem for Jim Messina.
Email with Job "Suggestions" from Jim Messina to Andrew Romanoff
44 Comments
This is criminal political malpractice by Messina, putting this down on paper or in an email. He should be fired, right now. Why Barack Obama thought anyone out of the brilliant Max Baucus’s shop should have any position in his WH is beyond me.
Really, Messina has created a whole nother level of exposure here for his boss and, ultimately, his boss’s boss. He needs to go, today.
The Sestak ‘problem’ is greatly exacerbated by the release of this offer of these paid, incredibly important (Senate-confirmable?) positions to Romanoff. I shudder to think what other idiocies Messina has committed to pixels or print, just sitting out there in peoples’ mailboxes and document folders.
He needs to go, right now. Did I mention NOW?
I don’t know what’s worse, that Messina fucked up by sending over email or that what he sent were jobs guaranteed to insult Speaker Romanoff.
We need to win this race for Andrew Romanoff.
But, if Messina goes down for this, then who takes over when Rahm gets his perp walk?
Nothin’s gonna happen to him– IOKIYAC (It’s OK if you’re a centrist).
We have a bunch of clowns running our country. But I’m not laughing.
Sweet Jeebus, you mean Obama hands out political appointments just like every other President has since Washington.
Sure looks to me like smart Politicians are putting a lot of distance between themselves and Obama.
Bennet is toast now!
Why the hell did Romanoff release this? Why did Messina use email instead of a phone? Have all politicians become stupid, or just the Dems?
Maybe, probably has more to do with tapping into anti establishment fever than anything else.
Seems as if the Rs (or the Teabaggers) are determined to get rid of a lot of their people. Saw a poll today that said that 57 % of SC Rs. want to dump Lindsay Graham because he’s not conservative enough.
Wouldn’t surprise me. Plus Grahams’ having teh gay doesn’t help either.
To embarrass Michael Bennett.
He’s a moron.
All of them.
The CORPORATE POLITICIANS that now occupy both parties are in for a rude awakening this fall.
OBAMA is a Joke.
The HOPE a Dope Obama game plan has been expose, Obama talks like a progressives but governs like Bush.
OBAMA and RAHM are basically sinking the conservadem ship, good riddance!
OFA is sending out these “get out the vote” actions for 2010, and there’s one here in Denver Saturday.
I think I’m going to go and tell the OFA coordinator, Sarah Starnes, that she and Mitch better just butt out of the Senate race until the general. Nobody wants Bennet. Hell the state Dem delegates are running 2 to 1, Romanoff to Bennet.
We don’t want Obama’s pick, period.
Seems like the WH has stuck its nose in every race so far and taken a beating. Hope it holds for Blanche Lincoln.
People make fun because I make lists, but look at Gillibrand in New York, Coakley in Massachusetts, Blumenthal in Connecticut, Lincoln in Arkansas, Case in Hawaii, Specter in Pennsylvania, and Bennet in Colorado. These are not one offs but a pattern of choosing corporatist and Blue Dogs. None of them are progressive. The White House has either pulled strings to help these or tacitly signed off on them with the state parties.
It would be interesting to know how many other races the White House and its surrogates are messing with. Yes, this is all expectable, but what is interesting is how conservative these choices are and what they say about Obama and this Administration. It says Obama and Rahm are determined to continue to take the country in the wrong direction, because the one thing that is certain with candidates like these is that the problems that are killing this country are not going to be fixed by this lot. They won’t even be addressed.
1. Sure it’s happened before, but bribing political rivals with appointments is unseemly for a President who campaigned on ethical government.
2. Romanoff may have been prompted to release the emails by a media question. He could be considered complicit if he withheld this information. I would have done the same.
3. This incident is more significant than the Sestak case, for a number of reasons including email evidence and direct contact with Messina. Can’t wait to hear what the WH has to say.
Yeah, but you don’t put it on paper(or email in this age).
Obama and Rahm are not Dems,
How many DEMS force a vote on the public option? none
How many DEMS force Obama to clean out MMS? none
We are all hoping some real DEMS get elected this year.
This White House’s muscular political shop’s meanderings is the stuff of fiction. Or, I wish it was.
They’ll say “who, us? we were in Cleveland at the time.”
Yeah, either that or a new Progressive Party.
In part it is arrogance, part is stupidity, but mostly it is business as usual. They are doing this because they find nothing out of the ordinary in what they are doing.
I meant to add with my previous comment that Obama’s support for Lieberman against Lamont is a lot more comprehensible now. There is very little ideological distance between them.
Not if you don’t consider it a crime. As I said, this sort of thing has been going on forever. Hell, there’s a Reagan guy bragging to the press about doing the very same thing in a California race.
Obama is 0 for 4 so far. Looks like that’s going to go 0 for 5 and beyond.
Thers is upstairs!
Late Night: When You’re Shallower & More Vicious Than Sally Quinn, Wow…
Good way to connect the dots!
Glenn Greenwald tries to tell us this daily, that OBAMA and LIEBERMAN are the same.
OBAMA is a TROJAN HORSE, a corporate puppet
OBAMA great health care plan makes people buy Health Insurance from for Profit Insurance Companies? is this progressive? NO
Rahm is finally learning you should always have one degree of separation for his devious tricks. But I must disagree. This is just too hilarious, especially after Sestak took the Rahm lemons (job offer) and made some tasty lemonade. Romanoff can do the same.
We can count on the R’s to be making lists of impeachable offenses. By the way impeachment is political. No crime is needed, just unpopularity. By hooking up 100% with the corporatists, there is likely to be some actual impeachable corporate crimes. Of course the incompetence of the Obama Administration does become more and more apparent.
Absolutely right and the ‘cat food commission’ is the best example.
Looking at the big picture this does raise questions about Obama’s involvement with Blago and I do think Rahm should testify since Rahm claims that Blago extorted him about a job (actually some of what Blago is accused is what the Obama WH is now saying it is OK for them to do) and I think it raises questions with the Sestak matter (just because the Obama WH says it was for an unpaid job, I’m not convinced – particularly in light of Romanoff…and it wouldn’t surprise me if there were emails too, just Sestak hasn’t released them). I do think Obama’s actions so far could merit impeachment, just I don’t think the Republicans would impeach him for what he should be impeached for…but if he’s engaged in witness tampering in attempting to cover up WH job offers, he could certainly have engaged in crimes that would fit within the standards of impeachment even if those aren’t his worst crimes.
In 2012 the choice available will be Obama or Patreus, – who will you vote for?
Comment of the day, or maybe year.
Why did Bennet release the email? Consider this:
Andrew Sullivan thinks AIPAC and Bibi are trying to take Obama down.
I’ve asked Romanoff about the I/P issue and he ignored my questions in 2 active forums.
Both Romanoff and Bennet are jewish.
Does Romanoff have AIPACs support? If he does, maybe he’s counted his chickens and feels that banking on anti-obama feelings and their backing to give him the win.
We’re all coulrophobic now. What’s your favorite clown car? Air Force 1? The Pope Mobile? The Straight Talk Express?
We have a clowns and asses running this white house. Rahm Emanuel, Joe Messina and David Alexrod; these people suck big time.
I just don’t get Obama’s thinking. The people of Colorado ought to choose who they want to represent them in the senate not the white house. Obama has become everything he railed against Hillary and McCain in 2008.
Good. Another DLC party hack exposed. Pretty dumb though to pull your own pants down in print like this.
Absolutely.The.Best
(I can’t stop laughing…)
These are key questions. And if he’s avoiding answering, that in itself…is an answer.
Leonard Cohen – Everybody Knows
Oh! well said Hugh.
And it’s why Harry Reid must go.Reid has been the poster child for
not do anything for ordinary Americans,can you imagine if this
guy ,Reid returns to the Senate what would happen,it would be another
10-12 yrs of screwing Americans for Corporations.
Really folks do you really want to see no progress
then Harry Reid is your man.It’s a pity the progressive grassroots(PCC) in Nevada can’t get a progressive to challenge Reid.If Reid wins it’s just like the GOP holding the seat.
It’s not handing out a political appointment, [edited by moderator] it’s a bribe.
[Mod note: Please do not insult other commenters. Thank you.]