Salon.com > Robert Menendez, D-N.J.

Tea Party mad at Menendez for BP/Lockerbie letter

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 18:45:00 +0000

Two months after their embarrassing hearing before the state Supreme Court, the New Jersey Tea Partiers trying to recall Sen. Bob Menendez are flailing for attention. Their new ploy: criticizing Menendez for leading the way in pursuing Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber.

Meghrahi, the only person ever convicted for the 1988 Pan Am airliner bombing that killed 270 people (189 of whom were Americans), is in the news this week, with BP now admitting that it lobbied the British government for his release last year in exchange for contracts to drill off of Libya's coast. Megrahi was released in August of 2009 on humanitarian grounds, since he supposedly had a terminal case of prostate cancer and would be dead within three months (although 11 months later, he's still alive).

On Tuesday, before BP made its admission, Menendez and other senators sent the State Department a letter asking, "[W]as this corporation willing to trade justice in the murder of 270 innocent people for oil profits?"

Can tea partiers recall the Senate?

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:17:00 +0000

New Jersey took a big step on Tuesday toward reclaiming its spot at the forefront of political dysfunction: A state appellate court has ruled that the Garden State's Constitution supersedes the U.S. Constitution.

Last fall, a group called the Sussex County Tea Party Patriots filed paperwork to begin a recall of the state's junior senator, Robert Menendez. State election officials gave them the cold shoulder because, while New Jersey is one of 18 states that allow recall elections, U.S. senators have long been considered off-limits. Past challenges, such as the 1967 effort against Idaho’s Frank Church, resulted in federal court rulings that the Senate -- and only the Senate -- can expel a member.

The catch: Article 1, Section 2 of the New Jersey state Constitution specifically says that "after at least one year of service, any elected official in this State or representing this State in the United States Congress" is susceptible to recalls.

The tea party group filed suit and the arguments were heard earlier this month. They argued that it's a First Amendment right to recall a senator and that citizens cannot sufficiently express dissatisfaction through an election every six years; they ought to be given more opportunities. Attorneys for the state and for Menendez argued that the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause essentially invalidates the state Constitution’s language.

If dreams came true, oh, wouldn’t that be nice?

Thu, 10 Nov 2005 20:52:00 +0000

As the next governor of New Jersey, Jon Corzine's first job may be to replace himself in the U.S. Senate. Rep. Robert Menendez is thought to be the front runner for the job, but Philadelphia Daily News writer Will Bunch has another idea: Sen. Bruce Springsteen.

Cry for me, Puerto Rico

Wed, 22 Sep 1999 16:00:00 +0000

Hispanic Heritage Month hasn't been kind to Hillary Rodham Clinton this year. September is normally the month when Democrats celebrate their ties to the Latino community -- the Gores, for example, danced salsa at an event this time last year -- but no one around the first lady is in a partying mood these days.

Ever since Clinton infuriated leaders of New York's Puerto Rican community
with her surprise statement opposing her husband's clemency offer for
radical pro-independence prisoners, her Latino allies have mutinied against her. As a result, she's spent much of the last two weeks in damage-control mode.

She's tried everything -- shmoozing at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus gala; standing shoulder to shoulder with Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer, one of the city's top Puerto Rican officials, to denounce the GOP's tax bill; and working into her speeches her long-ago efforts to help register Hispanic voters in the Rio Grande Valley.

Even as she's tried to repair the damage from the clemency debacle, Clinton has faced another Puerto Rican political issue that is set to explode on the national stage this week: the status of the U.S. Navy's bombing range on a tiny island called Vieques.

Burn, baby, burn

Wed, 03 Mar 1999 20:02:00 +0000

This city is in the throes of a wicked hangover. After a year of sucking on the intoxicant of impeachment, everyone -- the House, the Senate, the White House, the media -- is rubbing the gunk out of his eyes, brewing a fresh pot of Starbucks colon-stirring Sumatra and doing his damnedest to avoid thinking about the humiliating year-long national bender.

You can see the sincere attempts at reconciliation almost everywhere, as this company town becomes, like our flawed president, a veritable communion of repentant sinners, what Dick Morris might refer to as a bunch of "Sunday Morning Bills." House Speaker Dennis Hastert has been waxing bipartisan, making like Mister Rogers almost since the day he got the job. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott has been trying to get Hastert's cuddly vibes to rub off on him, and the two men even trod into the White House together on Feb. 23 to meet with the president to discuss where we all go from here.

Burn, baby, burn

Wed, 03 Mar 1999 20:00:00 +0000

WASHINGTON -- This city is in the throes of a wicked hangover. After a year of sucking on the intoxicant of impeachment, everyone -- the House, the Senate, the White House, the media -- is rubbing the gunk out of his eyes, brewing a fresh pot of Starbucks colon-stirring Sumatra and doing his damnedest to avoid thinking about the humiliating year-long national bender.