“Of course.”
And in two simple, terse words, Colorado’s Andrew Romanoff
told me today he would cooperate with a congressional
investigation into Jobsgate headed by Congressman Darryl Issa. Or
a Justice Department investigation if Attorney General Eric
Holder’s highly politicized staff finally decided to investigate
their White House bosses.
Romanoff made the statement live and on-air in an exclusive
interview on Peter Boyles’ KHOW -Denver radio talk show Wednesday
morning.
Romanoff had been avoiding Boyles for months. He had
avoided me.
Why?
Engaged in a hot race for the Democratic Senate nomination
with appointed Senator Michael Bennet, Romanoff’s name had
surfaced early on in revelations that the Obama White House had
on at least two occasions offered jobs to potential Senate
candidates — if they would withdraw from challenges to incumbent
Democratic Senators.
This is, according to any number of legal experts, a
federal crime.
At the center of the story in the beginning was
Pennsylvania Congressman Joe Sestak, who has since defeated
Obama-favorite Arlen Specter for the Democratic Senate nomination
in Pennsylvania, ending Specter’s 30-year Senate career.
When first
written about in this space back in
February, days after Sestak had admitted in an interview with
Philadelphia television anchor Larry Kane that he had in fact
been offered a job in exchange for the favor of his withdrawal,
the issue of “Jobsgate” arose immediately.
Kane had already checked with the White House on the issue.
He played the Sestak tape — and received an outright denial.
There had been no job offer, said the Obama White House.
Period.
In this space we quickly explored the issue of a potential
federal crime — and discovered a Denver Post
story
from September of 2009 alleging that a similar offer had
been in play between the White House and Romanoff. The story said
that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina had offered
Romanoff a job at the U.S. Agency for International Development
in return for his withdrawal from the race against Obama’s
favorite — Senator Bennet.
With the fat in the fire, Mr. Romanoff chose to
stonewall.
While Sestak repeatedly declined to reveal the truth in one
interview after another, Romanoff simply declined to answer
questions. Period.
Which is where Peter Boyles entered the story. Boyles had
repeatedly tried to get Romanoff to appear on his Denver talk
show, something Romanoff had done on occasion as a Colorado
political activist and former Speaker of the Colorado State
House. But that was before the Jobsgate issue arose. Now — no
go. Romanoff was turning down Boyles repeatedly.
Boyles had read my Jobsgate stories. He invited me to appear on
his show and soon I was making multiple appearances as the story
exploded into public view and kept going and going and going.
Peter Boyles is a funny guy — but beneath that humor is a quite
fearless willingness to dig into stories Colorado politicians and
the Colorado powerful wish to ignore.
There were repeated denials and evasions from White House
Press Secretary Robert Gibbs — now with White House
correspondents from Fox News and ABC in the hunt for answers.
Through all of this, Romanoff simply stiff-armed the media,
including Boyles and myself. A call to Mr. Romanoff’s cell phone
from me, with a message left, went unreturned.
Into this picture stepped Congressman Issa, the California
Republican who serves as the Ranking Member on the House
Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Issa began asking
questions on the issue of White House Counsel Robert F. Bauer And
of Attorney General Eric Holder.
Answers, to say the least, were not forthcoming.
Yet as Bill O’Reilly has noted, there’s a “new sheriff” in
town in terms of Fox News and the new media — which includes
Peter Boyles out there in Denver. Mr. Boyles kept digging. I kept
digging. All manner of others in the New Media — or what we call
here
“The Virtual Newsroom” — kept digging. Sean Hannity was
like a dog with a bone on this issue.
And sure enough — suddenly — progress.
The White House released a report that said, well, um, yes,
ahhhh, gee….there was a job offer. To Sestak. And multiple job
offers to Romanoff. White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel had
asked former President Bill Clinton to contact Congressman Sestak
with a job offer of an appointment to an advisory board on
foreign intelligence. And, as the Denver Post had
originally reported, Emanuel’s deputy, Jim Messina, did in fact
make the US AID job offer to Romanofff along with two
others.
At that point, Romanoff finally began to open up. While I
didn’t get a return phone call, he did do some interviews,
including on Fox, admitting the truth he had been so reluctant to
discuss for months.
So the news with this interview?
The August 10th Colorado primary approaches. Romanoff has
been endorsed by Bill Clinton — while Bennet carries the flag
for the Obama White House. According to a
story in the Colorado
Independent, Romanoff is trailing Bennet in fundraising and
has been trailing in the polls. But no election is over until
it’s over — and Romanoff is clearly going all out, fueled in
part by Clinton’s endorsement.
So finally it was time to bite the bullet — and talk to
Peter Boyles. Who, in turn was gracious enough to invite me on
the show and chat as well.
Romanoff was surely startled to find himself talking to me.
But he was gracious — and moved the story forward.
Since his round of interviews when the White House put out
the Bauer report, Congressman Issa had made it clear he would be
pursuing his investigation.
So the key question to Romanoff: Win, lose or draw in his
race for the Senate, would Andrew Romanoff cooperate with
Congressman Issa in his investigation into Jobsgate? Were
Attorney General Holder to pursue a Justice Department
investigation into his White House bosses — would Andrew
Romanoff cooperate?
Without missing a beat, live and on-air with Peter Boyles
and Denver listening in, Romanoff was crisp.
“Of course.”
Romanoff said he had no idea how the job offers were
generated. Which translates: we don’t know whether outgoing
Democratic Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, who had appointed
Bennet, was the instigator of the Colorado version of Jobsgate.
Was it Governor Ritter who got Messina to make the job offers to
Romanoff? Or did the idea originate in the White
House.
Mr. Romanoff had a “don’t know” answer for that.
He clearly wanted to talk about other issues — anything,
I’m sure — other than Jobsgate. He said he didn’t believe Denver
was being run as a “Sanctuary City” — a charge being made
repeatedly against Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, who is running
for the Democrats’ nomination for governor. Romanoff, as with
Sestak in Pennsylvania, insisted that the real issue was jobs and
that Coloradans wanted to talk about how he would help create
jobs.
I took the opportunity to point out that credibility was a
basic issue with Americans all over the country. Noting with
humor that I had early on in life served as press secretary to a
U.S. Senator, it had amazed me that he, Romanoff, thought he
could simply not answer questions on the Jobsgate issue and not
have people be concerned about the basic issue of his being
forthcoming on any issue. His answer? Romanoff quickly said if he
wins he might offer me a job.
A job? A job for a favor?
Uh-oh. Isn’t that where we started? Touché to Mr.
Romanoff.
The show went into the usual commercial break.
Suddenly I heard Peter Boyles’ voice coming through the
line off-air.
It seems Mr. Romanoff had enough. He had just told the
Boyles producer he wasn’t staying on the line. And with
that…interview over.
Ahhh well.
Here’s to you, Andrew Romanoff. Koo-koo ka-chew, as Simon
and Garfunkel used to say.
Thanks for talking. Thanks for answering an important
question.
And Congressman Issa?
Mr. Romanoff is happy to cooperate with you. Peter Boyles
has the tape.
