The WaPost Editors Declare Obama Hypocritical

Someone in the Obama Administration made a job offer of some kind to US Representative Joe Sestak (D-PA). The offer was, apparently, intended to dissuade Sestak from running against US Senator Specter (D-PA but until early 2010 R-PA) in the 2010 Pennsylvania Senate Democratic Primary. We don't currently know how, who, why, where or when the job offer to Representative Joe Sestak was made.

The White House has done an internal investigation and determined that they (the White House) hasn't done anything criminal and in fact has not done anything inappropriate.

The Editors of the Washington Post say, "the White House position that everyone should just trust it and go away is unacceptable from any administration; it is especially hypocritical coming from this one. "

The Washington Post editors apparently think the Obama promises of 'Sunshine' make this statement hypocritical but don't quote any promise, any policy, any statement that Obama has actually made.

The was a speech by President Obama contemporaneous with several executive orders (on compliance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), executive agency pay, hiring lobbyists) made early in the Obama Administration. It may be this that the Washington Post is thinking about when they make their accusation of hypocrisy. However, if the job offer was made by phone, there is simply no way a FOIA could discover it.

Anyway, although the Obama administration's offer to Rep Sestak may be sleezy (and I agree that the Obama administration should come clean on this), there is simply not enough evidence to declare the non provision of information hypocritical in this case.


The Washington Post statement is here.
Report on the January 22, 2009 speech by Obama is here.

Al Gore's New House

Former VP Al Gore purchased a house recently along the Pacific Coast.

It is reported to be the 4th house that he owns. The image shows a house that recently sold for the amount reported to be the Gore price and is in the same area. The area is Montecito, California.

The climate is pretty mild along the coast so the heating and cooling may not be as high as the other three Gore residences. However, according to the LA Times report (which is taken from a local Montecito publication), the house has five bedrooms, six fireplaces and nice bathrooms (also several fountains and a swimming pool).

What about the charges of hypocrisy?

It seems to me that Al Gore believes in the theory that purchasing carbon offsets is a valid way to compensate for this kind of consumption. Even if that theory is laughable, even if the carbon offset market is full of fraud, even if Gore himself profits from the carbon offset market, this belief (even if it is a belief willingly blind to facts), makes him a non-hypocrite (although one might consider him loathsome).

Personally, I wonder why one would have more fireplaces than bedrooms and almost twice the bathrooms as bedrooms but that is beside the point.


Images from this post.
LA Times report on the house is here.