sestak during june and july of 2009. but congressman sestak insisted four times, just on tuesday, that there was only one brief conversation. so who's lying? fourth, the memo alleges that president obama knew nothing of all of these conversations. now, why would the white house enlist the help of such a high- profile surrogate like former president bill clinton -- on "multiple" occasions, without the knowledge of president obama -- for months-long negotiations over such a low- profile, unpaid position, and all with a congressman who couldn't even accept the job anyway? and now we know that this is only part of a larger pattern of backroom, chicago-style politics. andrew romanoff, who's challenging democrat incumbent michael bennet for the colorado senate democrat nomination, was offered a choice of one of three jobs by rahm emanuel's deputy jim messina if he would drop out of the primary. again, the white house first denied the allegations when they came from anonymous administration whistle-blowers. but once the actual

congressman joseph sestak -- efforts of the white house to mislead. the clinton white house offered a job in return for dropping his challenge against arlen specter. the white house denied it. the white house finally conceded that some conversations happened but their message was "trust us. it was not inappropriate. move on -- nothing to see here." this did not pass the test. it is not up to the white house to judge the ethics of their behavior. that right is reserved to the american people once all the tasks are on the table. demand for these fact continues. after three months of intense political pressure, we were served with a memo from the president's larger admitting that contrary to previous denials the white house did in list former president bill clinton to offer an allegedly unhedged -- allegedly unpaid position. the memo raises more questions than answers. the law does not prohibit a offers of only paid positions. offering an unpaid position does nothing to exonerate bill clinton or white house chief of staff rahm emanuel. sestak would not b

he later withdrew because of ethical question of his own but then joe sestak against arlen specter and andy romanoff. >> and they all turned it down. >> that's the big thing. there are two factors come out of this. first is it violates the marvelous rule that i learned from speaker thomas p o'neill which is never write what you can speak. never speak what you can whisper. never whisper what you can nod and never nod what you can wink. and the idea of the house putting out a menu. >> i think i follow that. >> putting out a menu of three jobs, you know, and in print e mate and sending it out to romanoff and saying do you want column a, column b, well, there was no offer made. but the more important and significant development is that in both instances inspector ces-- ses tack and ses tack's case in pennsylvania and romanoff in colorado said that by defying the white house, by going public on this would cost them nothing and help them politically. and i think that's, you know, an unsettling message for the white house to receive. >> right, if you want a job, if are you unemployed, run aga

joe sestak, they were not going to become democrats. other than arlen specter these are people with very strong republican connections in washington. so, with arlen specter out there doing the most logical thing. which was interesting to me, arlen specter's former chief of staff, who was very strong on our inspector -- arlen specter, toomey reached out to him. everything was water under the bridge. washington is working hard with other loyalists as members of the club for coming after moderate republicans, working with a very conservative republican to help him win in pennsylvania. pretty standard in politics, burying the hatchet and moving on. but it was not like they were always friends. some of these guys did not like toomey because of what he represented. and republican party that would not stand for moderation. he made it his mission to go into republican primaries and beat the moderate. whether or not the conservatives could win, it did not matter to him. he has reached out to moderates, now understanding what it will take for him

ladies and gentlemen, when none of us have naval officers in this chamber, actually, congressman sestak is a naval officer and i don't see him here today, but when it comes to enforcing a blockade, you don't have a lot of tools in your quiver. now, there are some ways that you can debilitate a boat, that you can stop its roters from turning by essentially jamming it up from waters underneeths. that was done with one, two, three, four, five of the other boat us that didn't hear about in the newspaper. but those boats were stopped using efforts of the military in israel to stop them in the st peaceful way possible. now, if a boat is coming into a blockade and it might pose a threat to israel or to the united states, i mean, you can very easily change the names of the countries and say, a boat was coming from yemen to the united states and it's coming in and it wants to cruise down -- it wants to cruise down into the east river. of course the united states would not let that and the coast guard would say, you're going to stop right here soe can inspect what's on this boat and if they kept

sestak has been of very good representative, although not for the area for our live then. -- i live ini thought he was the better candidate. and if people did not go and vote in the primaries, the politics would pick the candidates instead of the people. host: marsha, did you hear from your friends and neighbors there were also motivated to get out and vote that day? caller: honestly, i have just caller: honestly, i have just recently moved. it was the 27th that i moved and the primary was the 18th of may. i saw a lot of signs. i did not see a lot of specter signs, and this is a republican area. host: we will speak with an associated press reporter ben evans, the reporter who has been writing about the number of folks running for congress this year. tell us about this surge in the number of people who are running this year. what is the interpretation of that? guest: we kept noticing in these primaries, the ballots were really long. we saw a lot of races with eight to 10 candidates. we asked the federal election commission for their historical records, and there are about -- this cycle