Congressman Joe Sestak

May 30, 2010

Congressman Joe Sestak
600 N. Jackson St. #203
Media, PA 19063

RE: What’s a lie among friends or if “honor is a gift we give to ourselves” when did you drop it?

Congressman Sestak,

There is a bit of irony about having Bill Clinton, a convicted perjurer, ask you to step aside for Senator Specter. If this were a spy novel he would be the “cut out”.

As it turns out he came straight from the White House. I have no doubt that President Obama lied. That’s what Presidents do. 3 times in the last century we were told that American boys would not fight in foreign wars, remember? Presidents must lie; they are not duty bound to commit perjury.

And just how far have you come from the Honor Code?

“A cadet will not lie, cheat, or steal.
He will not tolerate those among him who do.”

It was simple enough when you said those words on your first day at Annapolis. I understand that your father is an alumnus of the Naval Academy also. At some point he must have told you about the Honor Code.

Where did it all go wrong?

The details, whether it was quid for a quo or the other way around, are not really relevant. Your ethical antennae, the ones that you got when you voluntarily chose to subscribe to a personal code of honor, should have been quivering as soon as the operator said that President Clinton was on the line. You seem to have become willing Wormwood to his Screwtape exhortations.

There is a scene in “A Man for all Seasons” when Thomas More knows he is going to have his head cut off because of one man’s perjury.

He asks the judge what chain of office his accuser is wearing.

“He is made Attorney General for Wales.”

“For Wales? It profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world. But for Wales?”


Your desire to become a United States Senator has broken the bonds that have bound you to something greater than yourself.

I believe that this is going to wind up in front of a Grand Jury.

There you will have a chance to retell your story, this time under oath.

It will be easier then both to lie and to tolerate those liars with whom you have chosen to associate yourself. After the first lie there are no others.

“A man upon oath holds his soul in his hands as if it were water.
He opens his fingers at his own peril.”

“Duty, honor, country” was MacArthur’s last exhortation to the cadets at West Point. Too bad he didn’t get to the Naval Academy.





Kevin Smith