YEAH, THIS IS KIND OF THE PROBLEM – AT 8:30 A.M. ET:  The Clinton name, associated with the Sestak issue, is not doing President Obama any good.  People remember the Clinton scandals, too numerous to review.  From The Politico:

Bill Clinton’s picture is again a fixture on cable news.

Republicans are sternly demanding a special prosecutor.

And legal commentators are bickering over the finer points of federal criminal statutes on bribery and graft.

It feels like 1997—but it’s 2010. And Barack Obama can’t be happy.

The White House’s confirmation Friday that it enlisted former President Bill Clinton in an effort to get Rep. Joe Sestak out of the Pennsylvania Senate primary has sent the regular players in Washington’s scandal industry to their battle stations – to pick over the very sort of insider special dealing that Obama had promised to make a thing of the past.

“That’s not the image he wants to project right now with all the things that are going on,” said Mark Rozell, a George Mason University professor who has written at length on the Clinton-era scandals.

The use of Clinton as the conduit to offer Sestak an advisory board position is like catnip for cable television and for Republicans who have plenty of experience painting the former president as ethically challenged.

COMMENT:  You lie down with Clintons, you get up with pleas. 

As we said yesterday, this story requires further investigation.  The statements and excuses offered by the White House and Joe Sestak are entirely inadequate. 

Of course, the White House issued its explanation late Friday, just before a holiday weekend, to try to bury the whole mess.  It will be up to the GOP to use political artistry to keep it alive.

May 29, 2010