Turns out that the Washington Post not only published an intellectually lazy opinion piece, but one that advocated something illegal. Commenter alkali points to US Code Title 18, section 599:
Whoever, being a candidate, directly or indirectly promises or pledges the appointment, or the use of his influence or support for the appointment of any person to any public or private position or employment, for the purpose of procuring support in his candidacy shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if the violation was willful, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.
One assumes that candidates promise appointments all the time, just not publicly. But I wonder how often candidates actually get punished for this sort of thing (and whether journalists are aware that their election-year musings are actually illegal) -- any lawyers out there have the goods?
--Mori Dinauer
