Those involved in the presidential scandal surrounding the Obama administration's attempt to clear the primary field for Republican-turned-Democrat Arlen Specter serve as a good example of how the game of politics is played when a scandal erupts. And it's played all the time by both parties, at all levels.

Political tactic: Be flexible in your principles

Arlen Specter, who is more accurately called a Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-Democrat, switched parties after his liberal Republican sensitivities--culminating in his support of President Obama's massive healthcare overhaul--all but ensured his defeat in the next Republican primary.

Specter and the Democratic Party must have made a deal last year whereby Specter would register as a Democrat and the Obama administration would help clear the field of Democrats for him. Pursuant to that, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel--a modern day Cesare Borgia--enlisted Bill Clinton to offer Specter's Democratic primary opponent, Joe Sestak, a job in the executive branch.

Specter, for decades a Republican with a spine of boiled okra, realized his own party couldn't stand him. So he flipped, became a Democrat, and gave President Barack Obama the all-important 60th vote in the Senate to stop Republican filibustering.

Obama wanted to protect Specter. And Clinton carried the message: Sestak could remain in Congress and take a fancy appointment to a presidential advisory board.

Political tactic: Deny, deny, deny

Sestak turned down the offer, defeated Specter, and just last week the story hit the front pages. But rumors had been swirling around for months. In Feburary, Sestak was asked about the job offer by journalist Larry Kane. Sestak confirmed the rumor, but would not say what position was offered him.

Kane's station played the report aired all night.  At 6:45 the next morning, 15 hours later, a Deputy Press Secretary called and said, "You can say the White House says it's not true."

Political tactic: When it can't be ignored, make vague statements and hope it goes away

The story really caught fire last week, and the political game then kicked into overdrive as members of the Obama administration ran for cover. On May 23^rd, Bob Schieffer of Meet the Press asked White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs about allegations of a job offer.

"I'm not going to get into it," Mr. Gibbs said, "but people who have looked into it assure me the conversations were not inappropriate in any way."

First, they denied. Now they admitted to it with vague language that nothing "inappropriate" was done. Does that mean ethically? Legally? At this point, the administration couldn't ignore the story anymore, but didn't want to advance it with a full admission. They merely hoped it would go away.

Political tactic: When you must make an admission of wrongdoing, do it when nobody is paying attention

It didn't go away and the Obama administration was forced to make a more direct response:

On the Friday before Memorial Day, 100 days later, a classic news dump day, the White House Counsel Robert Bauer issued his report.  He claimed that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel enlisted the support of Bill Clinton, "who agreed to raise with Congressman Sestak options of service on a Presidential or other Senior Executive Branch Advisory Board."

They chose a Friday on a three-day holiday weekend, when few people are paying attention.  By the time Tuesday rolls around, the politicians will hope that it is "old news."

Has Obama used this tactic before? Right before the last three-day weekend, President's Day, the White House admitted, sort of, that it mishandled the New York trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed.

Political tactic: Hide the witnesses

The link to the White House to this scandal is Rahm Emanuel, a Machiavellian political operative with a reputation that mobsters would be proud of. What does Rahm have to say about this? We don't know, he's in Israel.

The trip, to celebrate Emanuel's son's Bar Mitzvah, has been planned since at least November 10^th, so it's difficult to accuse the administration of arranging it as a cover up. But Emanuel left a little bit before the Memorial Day break, and one can't help but wonder if he didn't get out of Dodge earlier than expected.

Obama hid Jeremiah Wright in Africa when his scandal broke during the presidential campaign.

Political tactic: Employ proxies to split hairs

If you're a Democrat, you don't want Clinton, Emanuel, or Obama talking about any of this, but you want your message out there. So, proxies are employed to keep the story from being one-sided. The progressive media is perfect for this. Because the job offer was for an unpaid position, it's technically legal. That doesn't necessarily make it OK, but it provides a good talking point to prevent the story from getting out of control from a PR perspective.

Political tactic: Justify bad behavior by pointing to other bad behavior

One of the most common, and fallacious, defensive political tactics is to go on the offensive and blame the other team for the same thing. It's a cheap, but unfortunately effective, trick. White House counsel Robert Bauer said:

"There have been numerous, reported instances in the past when prior administrations -- both Democratic and Republican, and motivated by the same goals -- discussed alternative paths to service for qualified individuals also considering campaigns for public office. Such discussions are fully consistent with the relevant law and ethical requirements."

It didn't work with your mother--"If Bill jumped off of a bridge, would you do it too"--and it doesn't work with people that are paying attention. But dishonest people will employ it to trick those that aren't paying attention.

Political tactic: Underplay

Bill Clinton denied his affair with Monica Lewinsky repeatedly, lying to everyone, then suddenly his people admitted it and said, "So what? It's just sex." If it was no big deal, why did they lie about it for so long. Additionally, they ignored the obstruction of justice charges, which are more than "just sex."

In this job offer scandal, some proxies are saying that Obama has enough to worry about with the oil spill, the bad economy, and foreign affairs to worry about such a matter.

Bottom line

The bottom line is that both parties are actively engaged in lying on a daily basis. They call it public relations, but it's all attempts to present their version of the truth rather than the truth itself. Political operatives will tell you that it's necessary to win and prevent the bad guys from taking over, and they're probably right. As long as the public refuses to pay attention to what their government is doing, the politicians can successfully advance their careers by lying. After a little while, they don't even see it as a deceptive practice--they rationalize it by telling themselves they are just presenting their side of the story.

I don't have much of a problem with an unpaid position being offered. This is common in politics, which isn't an excuse for bad behavior, but I don't really know how bad it is. It's happened everywhere and all throughout history, and I've heard it's happened locally.

It's the president's cover-up that bothers me. I respect Democratic Governor Ed Rendell for saying this on Fox News Sunday:

"I did the same thing in 2006 to ask a former congressman, Joe Hoeffel, to drop out of the race against Bob Casey in the primary... I said, 'Come back and see me if you do it.' He came back and saw me, and he was out of public service. I appointed him as a deputy secretary of commerce. He did a great job."