Pelosi Becomes One of Latest Dems to Turn on Menendez So Party Can 'Stay Focused' on Smearing GOP
There is no shortage of Democrats lining up to say that New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez should resign after his second bribery indictment in under a decade. However, to really stare into the true motives of why the Democrats are lining up against the Garden State Democrat, one need only look at the motives of former House speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi.
It’s not that Menendez reportedly had hundreds of thousands of dollars in his home when authorities searched it, or that those looking to exert influence over him gave him cars and bars of gold. I mean, that does look kinda bad, right?
It looks worse when he says that investigators and the public have simply “misrepresented the normal work of a congressional office.” And it looks positively cataclysmic when he played the race card, saying he was staying in his seat and those requesting he resign were “rushing to judge a Latino and push him out of his seat.”
According to The Associated Press, as of late Tuesday, roughly half of Senate Democrats had called on him to resign. On Monday, Pelosi had, too. Not because things look especially bad, though: Her reasoning was that the party needs to get on with the important work of smearing Republicans.
“I respect their position that they are taking and the charges are formidable, and if, in fact, we’re going to say that if you’re indicted, you should resign,” Pelosi said during an appearance on former White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s MSNBC show Monday, comparing Menendez’s case to that of GOP Rep. George Santos.
“But right now, sadly, because of the challenges that we face, because the skepticism that exists in our country, about governance about this Republican Party that doesn’t believe in governance, doesn’t believe in science … wants to take down everything in order to give tax breaks to the wealthiest,” Pelosi continued, “we’ve got to stay focused on that.”
“And for that reason, it probably would be a good idea if he did resign.”
PELOSI ON SEN. MENENDEZ: “It would probably be a good idea if he did resign”
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) September 26, 2023
Now, for one thing, let’s note several differences here between Menendez and Santos.
For instance, Santos has essentially been put into quarantine by his Republican compatriots in the House of Representatives after it turned out almost every major item on his resumé and in his backstory that was verifiable not only couldn’t be verified, but turned out to be considerably different than what he was claiming. (Remember how he insisted he only claimed he was “Jew-ish,” not Jewish?)
Menendez, meanwhile, was the chair of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, despite a previous hung jury in a corruption case in 2017; the Department of Justice chose not to retry him. He was re-elected in 2018 because virtually anyone with a D after their name who runs for Senate in the state of New Jersey, up to and including Joey Buttafuoco, will win.
Also, Santos’ case was an accumulation of little lies here and there meant to win an election. Menenedez had $480,000 cash in his home (not an errant zero there), plus other assets he was reportedly bribed with by U.S.-based businessmen and Egyptian nationals.
His response to this was that, because of his family’s experience in Cuba and the Castro regime’s confiscation of personal wealth, this is where he stored some of the money from his savings account.
That makes “Jew-ish” look a bit tiny in retrospect, no?
But here’s the most important part: The Democrats don’t really give a pile of horse fertilizer how bad this looks for Menendez as a politician in one of the most important legislative bodies on planet Earth. What they care about is that l’affaire Menendez is robbing them of important opportunities to slag Republicans.
But don’t believe me, though. Believe Nancy Pelosi.
They don’t care that Bob Menendez is corrupt. In fact, the stench of corruption has hung about him ever since the jury split on his first case back in 2017. He’s been a member in good standing of the Democratic Party since then. No George Santos treatment for him.
However, as this indictment comes while the Democrats are trying to wrestle as much money as they can from Republicans and engaging in a game of chicken over the government shutdown, this doesn’t look so hot, does it?
So, it doesn’t really matter whether he’s guilty or innocent. That’s for the justice system, of course. Politicians have — and should have — stepped down for less, but that’s not really the issue here.
The issue here is that Menendez’s alleged graft is getting in the way of their GOP smears. If that doesn’t say it all about the modern Democratic Party and what its priorities are, nothing will.
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