Salon.com > Robert Menendez

Tucker Carlson, you’re no Andrew Breitbart!

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 11:45:00 +0000

Strangely, the night before the latest humiliation of the Daily Caller’s Tucker Carlson -- by a Washington Post report that the Caller’s key source for its “scoop” that Sen. Robert Menendez patronized prostitutes now says the website paid him to find women who would lie about it -- I watched the documentary “Hating Breitbart,” a hagiographic 90 minutes of the late Andrew Breitbart ranting, vamping and raging for the admiring camera of his friend Andrew Marcus.

I wasn’t going to write about it, not because I hate Breitbart – I didn’t, and don’t – but because, sadly, it’s kind of slight. It doesn’t do justice to its outsize subject, however much it worships him. But the Carlson news juxtaposed with the documentary reminded me how much more talented Breitbart was than the pale imitators he left behind – as well as how much his rage-fueled, by-any-means-necessary character assassination posing as journalism lives on, albeit ineptly.

Report: Lawyer links Daily Caller to paid Menendez prostitutes

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 17:47:00 +0000

According to law enforcement officials in the Dominican Republic, a local lawyer alleges that he was approached by someone claiming to work for the Daily Caller about finding prostitutes who would say they were solicited by Sen. Bob Menendez, the Washington Post reports.

From the Post:

The local lawyer told Dominican investigators that a foreign man, who identified himself as “Carlos,” had offered him $5,000 to find and pay women in the Caribbean nation willing to make the claims about Menendez, according to Jose Antonio Polanco, district attorney for the La Romana region, where the investigation is being conducted.

The details are sketchy and the lawyer, Melanio Figueroa, is unreliable, himself accused of paying the prostitutes to lie about Menendez. He also recently accused four news outlets, including the Caller, CNN, Telemundo and Univision, of pushing him to make up the allegations.

Dominican police say prostitutes were paid to lie about Menendez

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 20:05:00 +0000

Three Dominican women were paid to falsely claim that Sen. Robert Menendez solicited them for prostitution, according to law enforcement officials in the Dominican Republic.

The Associated Press reports:

Police spokesman Maximo Baez says officers traced the payments to attorney Melanio Figueroa. Baez says two women received about $425 each and the other was paid about $300 to falsely state on camera that they had sex with U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey.

Baez said at a news conference Monday that authorities were seeking to interrogate Figueroa about the payments. Figueroa did not respond to messages left at his office. The women's videotaped statements were published on a conservative U.S. website. Menendez denied the allegations.

The Daily Caller was the first to bring attention to the allegations, when it published a video back in November with two of the women, appearing with Figueroa, who claimed that Menendez paid them for sex at the home of shady Florida ppthamologist Salomon Melgen. Earlier this month, one woman claimed in a court filing that she had been paid to make up the prostitution claims. The Caller eventually allowed that “several troubling elements in the story remain.”

So, about that underage prostitute thing

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 12:27:00 +0000

We might as well address the possibility that Republicans will end up claiming a Senate seat from a very blue state this year.

No, I’m not talking about Massachusetts, although it is possible that Scott Brown, who appears to be readying for a comeback bid, will defeat his Democratic opponent – likely Ed Markey, but maybe Steve Lynch – and return to the upper chamber. The unexpected drama this week is playing out a few states to the south, in New Jersey.

It’s hard to say exactly how much trouble that state’s junior senator, Bob Menendez, may be in, or if he’s in any trouble at all. Certainly, though, the headlines are alarming, and the existence of an FBI investigation has got to be concerning to Democrats, who know that any scandal that forces Menendez from the Senate would empower Gov. Chris Christie to appoint a Republican successor.

Daily Caller’s outrageous smear

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 17:35:00 +0000

In the grand tradition of Daily Caller scoops, the latest one leveling sex scandal allegations at Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., seems to have underwhelmed the general public.

Last night, the Drudge Report and the Daily Caller were hyping a sex scandal involving a "powerful" U.S. senator. It turns out, the story involved two Dominican women who claim Menendez paid them for sex. The evidence is pretty flimsy, relying on testimony from the two women, who identified a client as Menendez by looking at a picture. Nor does the Caller have any evidence that Menendez was definitely in the Dominican Republic at the time. From the Caller:

"When shown a photograph of Sen. Menendez, the women said they recognized him as the man with whom they’d had sexual relations at Casa de Campo this spring. Both said they were brought to the resort with the understanding they would be paid for sex.

Neither knew the identity of the man at the time. Both claimed to recognize him later as Sen. Menendez.

'He called him[self] "Bob,"' said one."