So now republicans are calling for a special prosecutor to investigate the claim that the Obama administration offered a job to keep a candidate from running for senate. The story goes like this:

1. Last April, with President Obama riding a high approval rating, 79-year-old Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Spector changes the letter after his name from an “R” to a “D”.
2. In August, Pennsylvania Representative Joe Sestak announces he will challenge Spector for the democratic nomination.
3. In February, Sestak claims that he turned down a “job offer” from the Obama Administration, a job he said they would give him if he dropped out of the race.
4. This month, Sestak defeated Spector in the primary election.
5. Since then a gaggle of republicans have made the rounds of the beltway new programs, dusting up the issue of Sestak’s job offer.
6. Now every republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee signed a letter to the Attorney General asking for an investigation into the job offer.

This is pure political maneuvering.

If the potential of bribery was so heinous, why did it take three months for a letter of concern appear? Simply put, the republicans had to wait until the results of the investigation would be a win-win for them.

Either Sestak overstated his encounter with the Administration or the Administration is understating. If the former is true, the republicans stand to regain Spector’s seat by disgracing the democratic nominee. If the latter is true, there will be a shake-up in the Administration, or, as some have suggested, this attempted bribery could be an “impeachable offense.”

If anything improper occurred, great! The opposition’s cabinet will take a fall. If nothing improper occurred, good! The opposition’s candidate will look bad. Had the republicans moved before Sestak won the primary, they would have probably lost that second option.

It’s been a little while since I posted on politics – mainly because nothing’s changed – but this little tidbit caught my eye. The European Union has denied representation of Greece as a punishment for the nation’s continuing economic issues.

Imagine that the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives decided that California’s budget wasn’t in order (which it’s not) and that its fiscal irresponsibility was harming the rest of the nation (as it may well be). So, Congress just decides that the duly appointed representatives of the Golden Sate don’t get to vote. Yeah, that’s what’s happening in the EU.

It would be one thing if they kicked Greece out of the EU. Instead, the Greeks are still required to fulfill their obligations as EU citizens, but have no representation in their democratic republic. Wow.

In  his monthly column, ESPN Ombudsman, Don Ohlmeyer, gives a scathing critique of the network’s Alamo Bowl broadcast in light of its biased coverage of former Texas Tech Coach Mike Leach’s firing. The whole thing is worth a read, but here are some highlights:

There was a backstory, at least according to Leach. The broadcast team was aware of it and basically ignored it. An explanation was available from the same sources that ESPN quoted so liberally elsewhere.
…
When the production crew focused on the game, the broadcast was fine — engaging pictures, excellent graphics, relevant replays, and interesting information and insights rendered by the broadcasters. However, when the telecast was bifurcated with the video from the field and announcers commenting on the dispute and covering the game at the same time, the result was dreadful.

The announcers talked off-game over plays, replays, the referees’ penalty calls and even each other. They had to interrupt what amounted to a sports radio talk show about Leach to pick up, in progress, several big plays, including a touchdown. They misidentified players and were late recognizing a fake field goal attempt. At one point, they went nine plays without verbalizing down and distance.

He also wrote about a story ESPN had virtually ignored two months earlier because that story involved ESPN employees. Apparently, that reasoning didn’t apply in this case.

I really can’t say it better than Mr. Ohlmeyer:

Was the telecast balanced? ESPN thinks it was — and for me, that is the most troubling aspect of this whole affair.

After News Hour tonight I was going to write my take on Scott Brown’s election and President Obama’s continuing Bay of Pigs saga. I was going to mention how the administration and their party seemed to be moving in the right direction – that governing less is more popular. Finally, I was going to point out that the president said anger and frustration, not hope, “swept” him into office. Here’s the quote I heard:

Here’s my assessment of not just of the vote in Massachusetts, but the mood around the country: the same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept me into office. People are angry, and they’re frustrated.

But when I went online to cite a source, and I found the complete quote:

Here’s my assessment of not just of the vote in Massachusetts, but the mood around the country: the same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept me into office. People are angry, and they’re frustrated, not just because of what’s happened in the last year or two years, but what’s happened over the last eight years.

I don’t know why I didn’t hear that last part the first time (I’ll check the News Hour podcast when it comes out), but it changes everything. In likening universal health care to the Bay of Pigs fiasco, Peggy Noonan made this important observation:

John F. Kennedy knew this [that humility was not weakness] after the Bay of Pigs. He didn’t blame his Republican predecessor, Dwight Eisenhower, or the agencies that had begun the invasion’s tentative planning under Ike. JFK made it clear he’d learned a great deal, which increased confidence in his leadership.

I pointed out in my original assessment that even the indomitable FDR had to be humbled by the outcry over his attempt to stack the Supreme Court. He went on to three more terms. Whether the downfall of health care reform (which is not quite dead yet) will prove a boon for this administration may depend on when they show any responsibility and contrition.

—–

On the same News Hour they interviewed Michael Chertoff about airport body scanners. He said, “Are you prepared to take a certain amount of discomfort… to get to your destination safely?” Well, on issues of Constitutionality, I’m not likely to trust an ex-Bush administration official who now consults for the company that produces the body scanners, but just to be cheeky:

Those who would give up Essential Liberty (ie. Amendment IV) to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Yeah, I know the season is long over, but hey, I just can’t keep rubberneckin’ at the train-wreak of the post-season.

Remember how there were two classes of college football programs? You know, the haves and the have-nots? Not only did the haves (particularly the Pac-10) get their comeuppance during the bowls, but then the mightiest of the mighty was told to “talk to the hands” of their supposed inferiors.

USC was first reminded that they are not the biggest show on earth; the NFL poached their coach. Then at least three – maybe more – coaches at “lesser” schools told USC, “Thanks, but no.” Finally, they had to ask someone they knew wouldn’t refuse, and they bagged a weasel who has a losing record as a head coach.

Of course that coach had to come from somewhere, and that somewhere was the vaunted SEC. And now Tennessee is having to grip with the truth that nobody wants to go there. Not an assistant coach at Texas, not the head coach from a service academy, and now not even the coach of a basketball school that is 18-75 over the last eight years.

I sense a great need for Volunteer therapy in the coming months.

I don’t know what happened between little Adam James and his coach at Texas Tech, but I do know that the network that employs Adam’s father is not telling both sides. During halftime of the Holiday Bowl, one of their correspondents who had spoken with Coach Mike Leach immediately after his firing said…

He (the coach) had hoped that former and current players and coaches would come to his defense.

And left it at that, insinuating that not one had. Newsflash ESPN: They have, but you need to go to your competitor’s website to find them.

ESPN also gave the Texas Tech administration airtime, but refused to even mention that Leach had issued a statement himself. The AD’s claim that he had offered Leach a chance to “work together” led to commentators laying to blame on Leach’s ego. “He had a chance to stay the coach of Texas Tech, and he turned it down… The only person to blame for him losing his job is himself.”

We don’t know what “opportunities” the AD extended. Sports Illustrated reports that they asked him to sign a letter of apology. Did that letter contain identical language to the college’s contractual escape clause (e.g. “negligent and irresponsible actions”)? Had he signed such a document, they could have fired him with no legal recourse. Leach has a JD, so he would know that his only chance of recouping the $1.4 million the school owes him was to not sign that letter.

I could only find one person at ESPN who is asking questions of the school. Wrote Ivan Maisel:

The university that overlooked Bob Knight’s methods of handling players in order to have him revive its basketball program suddenly has become the Amnesty International of the NCAA.

My advice: Read SI’s take on the issue.

While Leach engendered minor controversies here and there throughout his tenure, there had been not a peep about any misconduct. But then came the allegations from prominent ex-football star and ESPN analyst Craig James claiming Leach had subjected his son to humiliating isolation on two occasions because of his injury. Disputes then ensued over the details and the motivation behind said allegations — ex-players rushed to the coach’s defense; James and his father were apparently bitter over his lack of playing time; the purported “electrical closet” turned out to be the size of a garage; a doctor swore Leach inflicted no harm — but it was apparent from the beginning that Tech either wasn’t buying it or wanted Leach gone regardless.

For Bailey and Ashtyn.

Whatever the reason behind Urban Meyer’s “stepping” down, we should wish him luck in his future endeavors. What we should not do is what ESPN’s Chris Fowler recommended,

We should all hope, for our own sakes, that he gets his health in order so he can return to coaching at the highest level.

How selfish. How about this instead: “We should all hope, for his and his family’s sake, that he can put his health, family, faith, and other aspects of his life in order so that he is satisfied with life.”

The San Jose Mercury News is reporting on yet another Pac-10 bowl letdown.

Cal was ranked 12th in the country to begin the season and was picked to finish second in the preseason Pac-10 media poll. But the Bears tied for fifth in the conference standings and probably won’t garner a single vote in the final national rankings. It will mark the third straight year Cal has failed to finish in The Associated Press Top 25.

Let’s have a look at those Pac-10 preseason poll numbers, shall we?

If we remove WSU, which undertrained algae could have picked last, that’s a whopping correlation of 0.15, for an R-squared of .023. Let’s just hope these reporters don’t moonlight as stock brokers.

And what would be a Pac-10 beat down without confusion over who is really the better team?

“There’s no way we should be 8-5,” said quarterback Kevin Riley, who was 20-of-36 for 214 yards and threw two interceptions [on back-to-back offensive plays] in the fourth quarter. “It’s hard to say what we should have been, but we definitely should have been better than we were.”

But, never fear all those Cal fans with whom I went to high school. We all know the Bears are still an elite program. Said sixth-year senior Mike Tepper:

“We all believe that we can win a national championship. We just have to do it. This team has enough talent to beat Florida or Alabama.

…despite the fact that you just lost handily to the third-place team from the Mountain West Conference? Well, I guess Journey put it best:

Don’t stop belieeeeeeeeeevin’
Hold on to that feeeeeeeeee-leeeeeeeee-eeeeeeeeen.

Foxsports has a collection of Vegas Bowl postmortems from various CFN intelligentia. You can read the whole thing, if you like, but here’s my synopsis:

1. BYU is not “44-20 good.”
He’s right: OSU scored 14 points in garbage time… BYU was “37-7 good.”

2. The real OSU didn’t show up.
Et alors??? I’ve said this before: So the real Mike Tyson didn’t show up against Buster Douglas. The real New England Patriots didn’t show up in Super Bowl XLII. This might be the ultimate sour grapes comment.

3. The Cougars were just happy to play in a meager, humble, pre-Christmas bowl.
Translation: Such a small-time event is beneath the mighty Pac-10 teams, so why bother preparing?

4. This OSU letdown was expected “after coming so close to a Rose Bowl berth…. Blame the wind… the Strip… the Civil War [letdown].”
Just don’t credit BYU? This jerk can’t even bring himself to use “BYU” as the subject of a sentence. And I’d call the disappointed-unmotivated argument weak (even when some Alabama and BYU fans used it last year), but it’s not even applicable here. To quote Corvallis’ local media:

The Beavers opened the game inspired, so there was no hangover from the Civil War loss that knocked them out of the Rose Bowl. They just couldn’t regain momentum once it was lost.

Or, better, let’s ask the players:

“It has nothing to do with the Oregon game,” linebacker Keith Pankey said. “For anyone to think it has anything to do with that, it’s foolhardy. We’ve always been able to look past what happened. We get better from it and move on. We moved on. We’ll do the same here.”

5. “This wasn’t a middle-of-the-road Pac-10 team that got spanked by BYU; this was Oregon State. This was the same team that was within 17 minutes of going to the Rose Bowl as conference champions and has nearly a quarter of the All-Pac-10 first team on the roster. The Beavers certainly didn’t look like it against BYU.”
Thank you!

But why didn’t the Beavers look like their usual selves? If anyone bothered to listen to post-game comments from BYU’s DE Jan Jorgensen, he said his coaches saw that les Frère Rogers accounted for two-thirds of OSU’s offense. Stop them, you stop the Beavers. He said something like, “We knew when they would run the fly-sweep before they did.” It was details like this that made OSU look so bad. They looked bad because BYU made them look bad.

—–

PS: Dennis Pitta

2009 Records
Most receptions by a tight end.
Most receiving yards by a tight end.
(Also third in TDs by a tight end.)

Career Records
Most receptions ever at any position at pass-happy BYU.
Most receiving yards by a tight end at BYU.
Most receiving yards by a tight end in the history of the NCAA.

2009 Awards
Consensus All-American
First team Walter Camp All-American
First team American Football Coaches Association All-American

Did not win the John Mackey Award as the nation’s top tight end?

And because I like to see someone stick it to naysayers, even when I don’t particularly like that someone.

You might have heard that Cincinnati Begnals wide receiver Chris Henry died in an accident this week. His teammate Chad Ochocinco decided to wear Henry’s #15 on Sunday in his honor. The problem was that this was Ocho-cinco, the player who legally changed his last name to his nickname after the league fined him for wearing his nickname on his jersey. This was the player known as much for his post-touchdown hey-look-at-me antics as for his receiving ability.

The boo-birds came out and complained that Ochocinco was trying to turn Henry’s tragedy into his own story.

So he didn’t wear #15 on Sunday, but he did catch a 49-yard touchdown. As the commentators waited for some fanciful tribute, Ochocinco simply dropped to one knee and looked skyward. Because we’re used to so much more from this player, his inaction spoke volumes to both his fans and his detractors.