DEMOCRATS:...Indicted Menendez Plays "Latino" Card... Senator Needs To Resign...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | We looked, but we could not find a single serious reference in U.S. Senator Bob Menendez's days in Congress in which he said anything about being a "Latino," not one. The just-indicted Democrat from New Jersey is doing it now.

Does he actually believe that playing the race card now will help him?

It won't.

He's toast and he likely knows it. The 69-year-old has served three terms, being first elected in 2006 and winning reelection in 2012 and 2028. Not that he counts any sort of signature legislation, although he was chairman of the senate Foreign Relations Committee up until Friday, when he resigned that seat.

No, Menendez is no role model for anyone, and especially not for Latinos.

This excerpt from politico.com: [ Menendez said Friday he won't resign from the Senate despite mounting calls from fellow Democrats for him to do so over an indictment on bribery charges.

"It is not lost on me how quickly some are rushing to judge a Latino and push him out of his seat," Menendez said in a statement. "I am not going anywhere."

The New Jersey senator said he will "continue to fight for the people of New Jersey with the same success I've had for the past five decades."

Menendez and his wife Nadine were charged Friday by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York with conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right.

Serious stuff.

The indictment further accuses Menendez of accepting "hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes" in cash, gold, lavish gifts and other expenses in exchange for using his power to benefit a trio of New Jersey businessmen.

The senator is also accused of using his official role to benefit the government of Egypt, including by providing "sensitive U.S. government information."]

I was laughing at while reading Republican reactions to the bust, with more than one saying they thought this was just the Department of Justice trying to balance the scales alongside the four indictments shifty Donald J. Trump currently is defending.

Well, angles, yes. Politicians are schooled in finding the best way to interpret whatever hits the news cycles. Democrats are imploring Menendez to resign immediately; Republicans want to know why it took so long to get him.

Menendez is not new to any of this sort of slam.

He was indicted once before, in 2015 on charges of doing "favors" for a friend. Prosecutors charged him with using his office to do favors for a Florida eye doctor, Salomon Melgen, who lavished Menendez with luxury items and free travel. Menendez, who claimed he and Melgen were simply friends who exchanged gifts, avoided conviction after a hung jury caused a mistrial in 2017. Melgen was convicted of Medicare fraud in 2017, but President Donald Trump commuted his 17-year prison sentence.

This investigation?

There was this: A search of the couple's home turned up $100,000 in gold bars and $480,000 in hidden cash at their home, said case prosecutors, who added that Menendez also had received a new Mercedes convertible.

And, yes, Democrats are coming out strong in telling Menendez he needs to resign his seat, a point they're making to contrast with what Republicans said about Donald J. Trump's four indictments - Nothing like that...

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