That sound you're hearing is the collective air escaping from the so-called Joe Sestak scandal (aka "Obama's Watergate"), surrounding the rather routine discussions that allegedly took place behind the scenes among Sestak and high level Democrats who preferred he not challenge Sen. Arlen Specter in the recent Democratic primary in Pennsylvania. (Sestak won.) The claim was that Dems basically tried to bribe Sestak into quitting by offering him a cushy administration job. (Sec. of the Navy!)

The allegations of law-breaking were always foolish, but that's never stopped Fox News in the past. More distressing is how the Beltway press has occasionally played dumb in order to pretend there might be some there, there. Well, today, we learned there was even less to the story that originally thought. According to the White House, there was never any job offer made to Sestak. So why is the WashPost making that claim today?

Here's Chris Cillizza's headline [emphasis added]:

How the Sestak job offer became a big deal

But as Cillizza himself writes, there was no “job” offer [emphasis added]:

And so, the report this morning that former President Bill Clinton was tasked by White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to make such an approach to Rep. Joe Sestak -- allegedly offering him an unpaid advisory role on an intelligence board in exchange for getting him to drop his primary bid against Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) -- would not normally raise much of a stir in official Washington.

Does Cillizza not see the difference? If not, would he be willing to leave his salaried position at the Washington Post in order to take an unpaid advisory “job” elsewhere? I suspect not.

Based on what we know, neither Clinton, nor Emanuel, nor the White House ever offered Sestak a “job.” So why is the Washington Post getting that central fact wrong?

UPDATED: Meanwhile, will Cillizza amend his post to fix this passage:

That the story has become a major controversy, a regular fixture on cable news chat shows and a momentum-killer for Sestak following his come-from behind victory against Specter in last week's Pennsylvania primary'...

In fact, the latest state-wide poll from PA., shows Sestak now moving ahead of his GOP opponent.