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PaperclipPerfector  7mo ago (text post)   26359 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 25, 2023

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Is no one else interested in Bob Menendez?

Robert Menendez, senator from New Jersey, has been indicted for corruption. Again.

The first time, in 2015, he was indicted for corruption and bribery. It ended up going to trial, reaching a mistrial, and eventually the Justice department dropped the charges. The private businessman was convicted and sentenced to 17 years in prison, and his sentence was commuted by President Trump.

This time, he's again being indicted for corruption and bribery, but now the evidence is comical and flagrant. Gold bars and stacks of cash hidden in his laundry and about his house. The cash was apparently from American businessmen, but the gold was from the Egyptian government to provide intelligence beneficial to them.

The culture war angle should be pretty obvious. Menendez is defiant, and doesn't look like he's likely to resign. Democrats are calling for him to resign. Republicans, as they usually do, pounced.

(As an aside, does no one want to talk about Fetterman, either? I figured the Senate dress code might have elicited at least one top-level post, especially given the twitter menswear brouhaha of the last week.)

Does this have a chance of swinging the Senate in 2024? Will Menendez simply slink away is disgrace? Does any of this matter when Menendez has been one of the Democrats best foot soldiers in the Senate, particularly when it comes to immigration? Find out next time on Dragonball Z Culture War Roundup!

Is no one else interested in Bob Menendez?

Well, some of us remember him being played by Chris Noth in The Good Wife, so we already know which plot twists are coming.

Pretty ironic that Trump ended up pardoning Eli Gold, though.

Given the last go around with Sen. Menendez and corruption charges, my hopes are remaining low until the trial.

From what I know about US politics - isn't being corrupt prerequisite for being New Jersy or Chicago politician?

Yes, that's why no New Jersey politician will ever be President again.

On the other hand wasn't a Chicago community organizer somewhat recently US President?

Obama was far cleaner than any Jersey politician could ever hope to be.

He was never particularly involved in the Chicago political machine by local standards, mainly the (very marginally) less corrupt state government.

Bob Menendez being corrupt is of no moment. It was odd that Dems kept him in an important position up to this time, but I read that as this sort of corruption being normal (see Biden, Joe) just usually done with more subterfuge and less panache.

Does this have a chance of swinging the Senate in 2024?

Twenty years ago another New Jersey Democrat had his Senate re-election campaign thwarted by ethics investigations, and the state Supreme Court threw out the election rulebook so that a beloved former Governor could replace him on the ticket even though it was past the deadline. I suspect that we can rely on NJ as much for election skullduggery favoring Democrats as we can for it to elect corrupt Senators.

Inspiring how this Melgen guy can supply a Democratic Senator with underage prostitutes, steal millions from the government through fraud, go to jail for 17 years, and get pardoned by Donald Trump.

And people say bipartisanship is dead.

Trump pardoned Melgen because even though he was a heavy Democratic donor who used his connections in congress (primarily Menendez) to try to stymie the ongoing investigation into his $73m Medicare fraud, he was also one of the most prominent people in Palm Beach society, which of course Donald Trump is at the heart of. It wouldn’t even surprise me if Melgen had personally treated Trump as an ophthalmologist.

Trump’s personal loyalties have always taken priority over any politics he may have had.

Trump’s personal loyalties have always taken priority over any politics he may have had.

This is one of the reasons that it's so interesting that he wasn't inclined to extend any of that loyalty to mostly peaceful election justice protestors via pardons.

Is it a personal loyalty if they're just your fans and not people you've actually met?

Is no one else interested in Bob Menendez?

It’s not a revelation that Bob Menendez is corrupt. In fact if there was exculpatory evidence I would assume that it was about a different Bob Menendez.

Does this have a chance of swinging the Senate in 2024?

Only if menendez loses his primary and then runs as an independent. Even then, probably not. And even if a Republican does win that way, he’ll only be there for one term.

Loses his primary? Like, he's gonna continue to sit?

If being caught redhanded taking solid-gold bribes doesn't get a Senator some jail time, what could?

High profile political trials take a very long time, and a senator with gold bars can afford all the delaying tactics and legal time wasting that money can buy.

Can you be elected from prison?

Who knows how long the trial will take? He may both go to jail, and still be free at the time of the election.

Never heard of him before today.

They wrote these charges as they wanted; the facts are not as presented. Prosecutors did that the last time and look what a trial demonstrates.

Maybe Fetterman isn’t the only one who’s had a stroke?

As for Twitter: I remain thankful that a brouhaha does not always herald a storm. Sometimes people just wanna get worked up.

I don't think it has much of a chance of swinging the Senate in 2024. He won his last re-election with an 11.2% margin even in the wake of a corruption trial. NJ hasn't actually elected a Republican senator since 1972, so I think it's safe to say NJ is a Democrat stronghold. If Menendez resigns, the Democrat governor just appoints someone else. I'm not an expert on NJ politics but I can't imagine the governor putting in Republican into that seat. If Menendez refuses to resign (and isn't removed) another NJ Democrat has stepped up to challenge him in the next election.

If republicans win the senate in NJ, then there would be a red tsunami

Menendez chaired the Foreign Relations committee. He was the most important politician for foreign relations, all the while taking bribes from a foreign government. It makes you wonder how serious American corruption must be if this is happening at the top and he was so terrible at hiding it.

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