Dem lawmaker urges White House to release details on Sestak job

Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner (N.Y.) called on the White House Monday to detail conversations it allegedly had with Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) to try to convince him to drop his Senate bid.

Weiner said allegations that White House officials had offered Sestak an administration job in exchange for his dropping his primary bid against Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) had become a growing political liability.

"I think what the White House should do is, to some degree, say, 'Here are the facts,'" Weiner said Monday morning during an appearance on MSNBC. "If there's not a lot [to] what's going on here, then just say what happened."

Republicans led by Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.), ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, have begun to ramp up pressure on the White House and Sestak, who originally made his allegation during his eventually successful primary challenge to Specter.

Issa has called on Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor in the matter, and has threatened to file an ethics complaint against Sestak.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs maintained Sunday that "nothing inappropriate happened."

Weiner said he saw it as likely that nothing inappropriate happened, but reasoned this was why the administration needed to be more forthcoming about the case.

"When we're having conversations like this three days after the nomination, that's a problem," said Weiner, who also expressed support for Sestak's Senate campaign.

But the New York Democrat said the best way to do that was with some sort of release of information, which he said would bury the story.

"Someone has to help us out here, and I think the White House and Congressman Sestak need to make sure we're not talking about this next week," Weiner explained.