Andrew Romanoff is no Joe Sestak. Unlike US Senate Candidate Sestak (D-Pennsylvania), US Senate Candidate Romanoff (D-Colorado) is not waiting to be told what to say about job offers from the Obama White House meant to entice him out of his campaign. Mr. Romanoff said in a statement Wednesday night that he was contacted by President Barack Obama's Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina last fall and told that the White House would support his opponent in the primary. When Mr. Romanoff said he would seek the nomination anyway, Mr. Messina "suggested three positions that might be available to me were I not pursuing the Senate race," Mr. Romanoff said. (source)

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Also unlike the synchronized stories of the Obama/Clinton/Sestak triad which became the "trust us, nothing inappropriate happened" strategy, the Romanoff statement included a September 11, 2009 e-mail to Mr. Romanoff from Mr. Messina which lists the three positions (two at the United States Agency for International Development the other as Director of the US Trade and Development Agency) complete with job descriptions. (view the e-mail)

No way for the administration to stonewall for three months and then claim these were non-paid positions or that they were mentioned in some 30 second phone call from a former president who, for some unknown reason, is willing to be used as a scapegoat. This time there is written evidence of the potential employment opportunities if Mr. Romanoff dropped out of his primary race.

Whether the administration's actions in both the Sestak and Romanoff cases are illegal remains to be determined, hopefully via an independent investigation. But there is no doubt that their actions are part of an unethical pattern of behavior.

Now that Mr. Romanoff has been forthcoming about his back room dealings with the Obama administration, perhaps Mr. Sestak will find the courage to do the same. Certainly neither of them has anything to fear by losing the endorsement of President Obama. Even he knows how ineffective he is in influencing elections via traditional endorsements. That's why he and his henchmen keep resorting to bribery.