Maybe gold bars are cheaper than ten lords a’leaping?
I heard that the hereditary Lords used to be quite pricey, but I imagine that since they got kicked out of the House of Lords some of them are looking for extra income, so prices may have come down.
I’m truly surprised at the paucity of shouts, from the political left, of “FAKE NEWS!” and “WITCH HUNT!!” and "CORRUPT DOJ!!’
It’s almost as if the left sees this guy as guilty as sin, supports the rule of law, and can put country before party.
Huh. Weird, right?
Step down already, jeez. It may not be against the law to have gold ingots in your house, but there’s no legitimate reason that an honest citizen would have them. I don’t think he can count on a hung jury to save his skin this time, resign and cop a plea, please.
I learned to spell my new senator’s name Laphonza Butler in asking to request Menendez’ resignation so there’s an upside. Maybe if millions of voters write they could persuade him to leave.
Bob Menendez doesn’t give a flying fuck what Californians think of him. I mean, he doesn’t give a fuck what anybody thinks of him, but he really doesn’t care what anybody who isn’t a New Jersey Democratic primary voter thinks of him.
Cart before the horse. If he’s going to cut a plea deal, his resignation is a valuable bargaining chip.
These procedures are always difficult for the children, so I want to offer Alicia comfort should she become distraught.
So why no move to expel him? Santos was expelled from the House before being convicted in court. While Santos is more comical, what Menendez allegedly did looks much worse.
No worry about changing the make up of the Senate. Gov Murphy can appoint an interim Senator. I don’t think a special election will be needed since the term is up in November.
It’s slightly complicated by the fact that the governor’s wife is already running to replace Menendez. The best solution would be to put in a placeholder Senator who has no intention of running. There is recent precedent. When Lautenberg died Chris Christie appointed the state AG to fill the seat until a special election. A special election was needed because it happened midterm. Cory Booker won that.
Richard Codey seems to be the go-to person to fill interim spots. He’s probably available.
I’ve read that Menendez is considered both powerful (at least for now) and viciously vindictive. Better to stand clear of the fatally wounded grizzly, I think is the logic. He’ll die soon enough.
I’m not sure how that would make a difference to Republican senators. If Republicans pushed the idea then Democrats would have to justify voting for or against it in public. Like the Santos vote.
Santos wasn’t expelled until there was at least the results of a House Ethics Committee investigation for the body to consider. I don’t know if there’s a Senate Ethics Committee investigation ongoing (he’s been through at least one previously) but it would be premature to expel a member of the Senate based only on an indictment and evidence selectively released by the prosecution.
The few Republican Senators who have commented at all on Menendez have encouraged him to fight. They don’t want him removed from the Senate, they’d much rather have him around to use as a poster boy for Democratic corruption.
I think it’s pretty difficult these days for Republicans to take the position that all the alleged scandal makes Menendez unfit for office.
Why? If you bring up any similar Republican issues they can just say “Yes. And?”
I’m just speculating, of course. But while the GOP has no aversion to hypocrisy, I think they saw this as an opportunity to stake out a consistent position (for once). All that “he should stay and fight” stuff, for a senator that they despise. Maybe it was a talking point in their daily memo: “No calling for Menendez’s expulsion! We support his right to fight with everything at his disposal (tee hee!)”…
It was the New York Republicans that brought forward the first premature Santos vote. The House Ethics Committee was led by Republicans. Republicans are the reason why he was expelled. They could easily score points by saying “Look what we did. The Democrats are corrupt and won’t get rid of their criminals.” We aren’t talking decades old history. It just happened. I know the Senate and the House are different but smart party leadership would try to be unified.
For those curious about the national implications the seat appears to be safe for Democrats. It would be a hard hill to climb for Republicans in this state. Other than Menendez there is the governor’s wife Tammy Murphy and Rep Andy Kim. The state has Murphy fatigue so the smart money is on Kim. I think Kim is polling higher than Menendez but Bob has a huge war chest. The Republicans have a few candidates with very little name recognition.
New York Republicans brought forward the second premature Santos vote – Democrats first introduced an expulsion resolution in May that was blocked by Republicans.
The House Ethics Committee is evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. Their report on Santos was issued unanimously by the committee.
On the final vote, more House Republicans voted against Santos’ expulsion than voted for it. Twice as many Democrats voted to expel Santos as Republicans.
Yes, and? Many Republicans were for it. The Ethics Committee is chaired by a Republican. I didn’t say it was unanimous but there was a lot of support from the Republicans to expel Santos. There would have to be to get 2/3s. For Menendez I’m seeing some calls to resign but not much else.
Because if Republicans want to contrast how they handled Santos with how Democrats are handling Menendez, the fact that the majority of them voted against his expulsion kind of undercuts that argument. They also twice defeated motions to expel Santos arguing (correctly, I believe) that they were premature since there had been no Ethics Committee investigation. So that would make them hypocrites to argue Menendez should be expelled without the same due process.
I do think it’s outrageous that the Senate Ethics Committee appears to be sitting on its hands in regard to Menendez. It’s hard to know because they’re pretty secretive about what they’re investigating, but they did put out a statement when news of the indictment first broke that, “absent special circumstances, it has been the long-standing policy of the Committee to yield investigation into matters where there is an active and ongoing criminal investigation or proceeding so as not to interfere in that process.” I.e. don’t expect anything before his court case is resolved.
Just a reminder before we journey too far down the road. This thread is not about the Republicans or Republican corruption.