Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Linn Grubbstrom
Talk Radio News Service

In a letter to White House Counsel Bob Bauer on Wednesday, Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) called for the release of any documents or records relating to allegations that the Obama administration offered a job to Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) last year if he agreed to not run for the Democratic Senate nomination against incumbent Arlen Specter.

"If the American people are to have any meaningful degree of confidence in the legitimacy of the conclusions drawn in the Sestak memorandum, they must have access to the underlying information," the letter states.

The letter comes in response to a memo put out last week by the White House denying that any violations occurred when former President Bill Clinton, at the behest of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emaunel, offered Sestak a position with the Obama administration in 2009.

In the memo, Bauer defended the action taken, arguing that the Bush administration had conducted similar actions during its years in office. However, Issa, Smith and Sensenbrenner blasted the White House for comparing the offer to Sestak to anything done during the Bush era.

"For a President [Obama] who campaigned by assailing the policies and practices of the Bush Administration to justify his actions by invoking his predecessor is ironic."