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Sestak-Gate Is Awful Because... Well, Let Me Get Back To You On That

Former Bush administration Attorney general Michael Mukasey tells Dave Weigel why he thinks there needs to be a special prosecutor to investigate the possibility that the White House offered a job to Joe Sestak:

"People were railing on me for months, demanding a special prosecutor for this, a special prosecutor for that. But here's a case where ... well, he hasn't said what happened."

Kind of funny watching Mukasey build up the the conclusion that something really smelly has happened here, and when he gets to the point in the sentence where he has to define the illegal behavior, he just stammers out that he doesn't know what happened.

I'll keep saying this: A job offer is not a quid pro quo to get somebody out of a race. It is getting somebody out of a race. Accepting one job means you cannot run for another. It happens all the time -- the White House appointed John McHugh Army Secretary in part to get him out of New York's 23rd Congressional District. It offered Judd Gregg a cabinet slot in order to get him out of the Senate. This is completely routine, neither illegal no immoral nor especially unusual. Can't we wait to appoint a special prosecutor until there's at least some possibility of underlying illegal behavior?