Says larger investigation is needed

Congressman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) will not investigate whether the Obama Administration offered U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pennsylvania) a job to thwart Mr. Sestak’s successful primary challenge of incumbent U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pennsylvania).

Mr. Issa, soon to be majority chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, seems to have bigger fish to fry.

U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.)

On CNN’s “State of the Union”, Mr. Issa said, “We’ve discovered the problem is bigger than that (the Sestak situation) – it’s bigger than President Obama.”

Mr. Issa said similar possible abuses may go back as far as the administration of former President George W. Bush.

Mr. Issa said the Sestak issue is part of a broader situation that needs to be explored by his committee.

The preliminary look at the possible Sestak job offer indicated “Republicans and previous administrations thought it was okay – in spite of the absolute black and white letter of the law.”

Mr. Sestak said in a television interview early last year he had been approached about an administration job, in exchange for dropping his primary challenge to Mr. Specter.

After upsetting the incumbent, Mr. Sestak lost a close race for the U.S. Senate seat to former U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Penn.).

“It was wrong if (it was) done in the Bush Administration. It’s wrong in the Obama Administration,” Mr. Issa said.

Mr. Issa said he will not continue the Sestak case investigation, but will broaden the scope of his committee’s look at job offers to influence federal elections.