Bob Menendez, the long-serving Democratic senator from the Garden State, has long been a very sketchy dude.
Seventeen years ago, federal prosecutors suspected that he’d steered federal funds to a nonprofit group that was paying him rent. Nine years ago, the FBI suspected that he’d intervened for two accused Ecuadorian criminals in exchange for campaign funds. Six years ago, he was on trial in federal court – and escaped unscathed, thanks to a hung jury – for helping an affluent eye doctor charged with health care fraud in exchange for free flights, free vacations, and big donations totaling a million bucks in value. His sole punishment thus far has been a slap on the wrist from the Senate Ethics Committee, which “severely admonished” him five years ago for his shady dealings with the eye doctor…who, it turned out, was convicted on 67 counts of health care fraud.
But now Jersey’s sleazy Houdini is in serious trouble again, worse than ever. The big question: “Are the Democrats – who pride themselves for being far more ethically principled than the sordid MAGAts – gonna close ranks to demand that this guy take a hike? Like, pronto?
According to the new federal indictment unsealed on Friday, Menendez put himself and his public office up for sale. The feds, buttressed by solid evidence, say that he agreed to interfere in two criminal cases and that he used his high perch as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to leak sensitive info to the Egyptian government – all of that (and more) in exchange for stacks of gold bars, nearly half a million bucks in cash (which he stuffed in his clothing, closets, a safe, and a safe deposit box), plus a Mercedes-Benz convertible and a no-show job for his wife.
The photos in the indictment are jaw-dropping, and some of the evidence is perversely hilarious, like the feds’ discovery that Menendez had googled this question: “How much is a kilo of gold worth?”
Predictably, Menendez has declared in a Trumpian public statement that he has done nothing wrong, and that “forces behind the scenes” keep plotting against him because he’s a Latino. But apparently that’s good enough for Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer who’s extolling Menendez as a “dedicated public servant.” Schumer points out that Menendez “has a right to due process and a fair trial,” but, given the grave specificity of the evidence, it does not logically follow that Menendez has an inaliable right to keep his Senate seat, much less run for re-election in 2024.
When the ethics panel slapped his wrist in 2018, it ruled that his dealings with the crooked doctor had brought “discredit upon the Senate.” The new evidence of gold bars and bribery money stuffed every which way stains the chamber far more – and you have to wonder why Democrats aren’t marching in unison to demand that he quit.
New Jersey Democrats, led by its blue governor, have already stepped up. But at this writing, only one senator – John Fetterman – has done the same. Senate Democrats hounded Al Franken to quit his seat thanks to a juvenile photo that was snapped prior to his elective career, yet somehow they’re cool with Bob Menendez staying on the job?
(I especially love the indictment anecdote about how Menendez went to bat for a businessman who has also been indicted – and the businessman, who has ties to Egyptian military intelligence, rewarded the senator by giving Mrs. Menendez a Mercedes. The missus texted the businessman: “I’m so excited to get a car next week.”)
Democrats in Washington, on the cusp of what will arguably be the most crucial campaign in American history, intend to market themselves as the saviors of the rule of law – and to contrast themselves with the MAGA nihilists who remain in thrall to a lawless lummox whose latest wish is that Joint Chiefs chairman Mark Milley be executed for treason, the way it woulda happened “in times gone by.” To sharpen that contrast, the blue party should close ranks against Menendez. Failure to do so feeds the cynical MAGA belief that everybody Is corrupt.
How is this not a no-brainer?