Much like the non-scandal around Joe Sestak's job offer, the new controversy around Colorado Democratic Senate candidate Andrew Romanoff is but sound and fury, signifying nothing save a troubled campaign's attempt to gin up some national media attention.
The key detail left out of Romanoff's big reveal that White House fixer Jim Messina had contacted him about specific jobs in the administration while the Colorado House speaker was considering a run for Senate is that Romanoff had previously applied for jobs in the administration, as Marc Ambinder reports. Today, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs released the following statement to reporters:
Jim Messina called and emailed Romanoff last September to see if he was still interested in a position at USAID, or if, as had been reported, he was running for the US Senate. Months earlier, the President had endorsed Senator Michael Bennet for the Colorado seat, and Messina wanted to determine if it was possible to avoid a costly battle between two supporters.
But Romanoff said that he was committed to the Senate race and no longer interested in working for the Administration, and that ended the discussion. As Mr. Romanoff has stated, there was no offer of a job.
What's amazing to me is how much attention has been whipped up around two cases -- three if you count Judd Gregg's attempt to make a deal that his seat would be filled with a Republican should he become secretary of commerce -- where the Obama administration has attempted to fill executive branch positions with qualified people while smoothing over political differences.
As has been pointed out repeatedly, nearly every president practices this sort of pragmatic human resources tactic -- and indeed, if two qualified people are interested in public service (let's assume motivations most pure), why not try to find an opportunity for both to serve?
--Tim Fernholz
