White House admits asking Clinton's help in easing Sestak out of Senate bid

White House officials have finally come clean with the details of U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak's job offer.

White House Counsel Robert Bauer, who investigated the issue, yesterday issued a report that said White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel enlisted former President Bill Clinton's help to get Sestak out of the Democratic primary against U.S. Sen Arlen Specter.

Obama was supporting Specter and the goal, according to the report, was to "avoid a divisive Senate primary."

Clinton agreed to raise the offer of a seat on a presidential advisory board or another executive board if Sestak dropped his bid, the report said.

Sestak refused to get out and, last week, defeated Specter for the Senate nomination.

Since his win, Republicans have been dogging Sestak and the White House about the job offer, which Sestak first made public in February.

Sestak, of Delaware County, confirmed on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday that the White House had made him a job offer, but since then he - and until yesterday, the White House - had remained silent.

Now, Republicans and Sestak's Senate opponent, Pat Toomey, are urging him to tell his end of the story.

Toomey, Sestak's GOP opponent for the Senate seat, said: "If this explanation is as innocent as it looks, I sure don't know why it took three months to say so. The White House and Congressman Sestak should have been forthcoming a lot sooner."

Rob Gleason, Republican state chairman, said in a statement yesterday: "For an 'outsider' candidate that promised openness and transparency, I am outraged that Joe Sestak has refused to come clean on this matter."

U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has demanded a federal investigation of the potential bribe.

However, the White House maintains that nothing inappropriate happened in the discussion and it has every right to want to deter a divisive election.

Under the proposed arrangement, Sestak would have been able to remain in the House while serving on a board. It was not clear why the White House - which has the power to offer Cabinet posts and sought-after embassy jobs - believed Sestak would be interested in just an advisory position.

Whether the job offer would have an impact on the November election is another question.

G. Terry Madonna, director of polling at Franklin and Marshall College, said: "I don't think it's going to have a huge impact. It wasn't Sestak that has done anything illegal or wrong. Maybe he could have been more forthcoming earlier . . . I think Toomey will do something with it, but who made the offer? The White House. Did Sestak take the deal? No. Did Sestak do anything illegal? No."