Sen. Menendez and his wife indicted on bribery charges

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

Third Times the Charm

[oldtimer]

Kim can beat him in a primary if he wants it.

A no-name woman got nearly 40% of the vote against him in 2018. If a competent challenger even half-tries, I think he’ll get primaried.

What if the New Jersey Jury refuses to convict, again ?

[Person Man]

Maybe they’ll get him this time.

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/sarahnferris/status/1705324513326461305https://twitter.com/MattFriedmanNJ/status/1705326707299713164https://twitter.com/RepSherrill/status/1705326566991913155

[certified hummus supporter 🇵🇸🤝🇺🇸🤝🇺🇦]

https://twitter.com/mmfa/status/1705269305841975576
It was only a matter of time for this theory to surface.

F**k, they exposed my plans. Pack it up boys, the jihad is cancelled 😔

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/umichvoter/status/1705334762024432121

[Ferguson97]

https://twitter.com/wildstein/status/1705326410930250143

Murphy calling on him to resign, he's done

[Fuzzy Bear]

We need to be praying for this man as hard as we can right now.

He is a Christian man who made mistakes in his past life, but has since been forgiven by God.

He is under massive and incredible demonic attack because of it, and Satan is hitting hard.

This isn't wrong.

[Pres Mike]

I wonder if he'll dig in like George Santos or Kevin de Leon. The whole world can demand you resign, no one can force you.

Will the senate expel him? I'm skeptical. He is up for re-election in a year, he could try to hold out until than.

[Atlas Force]

https://twitter.com/anthonydmusa/status/1705212133166682488

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/wildstein/status/1705352760172933334

[Senator Incitatus]

It's still very early but I'm noting that the calls to resign are almost entirely coming from the genteel suburbs, with the very notable exceptions of Jones (East Orange), Fulop (Jersey City, but a longtime personal rival) and Currie (Paterson).

If Payne, Baraka, Norcross, Booker, Stack, etc. were to come out and call for resignation, I think then it would truly be over. But Menendez actually does have a slim chance of surviving on a purely urban base by playing this ethnicity card, especially if he faces two or more challengers.

[Progressive Pessimist]

https://twitter.com/mmfa/status/1705269305841975576

It was only a matter of time for this theory to surface.

....what? What? This is insane, even for them.

Really? I think it was pretty predictable.

[Pouring Rain and Blairing Music]

https://twitter.com/prem_thakker/status/1705234303326511138?s=20


Paragraph 42 of the indictment is also downright comical:

42. On or about October 17, 2021, ROBERT MENENDEZ and NADINE MENENDEZ, a/k/a “Nadine Arslanian,” the defendants, returned from Egypt as described in paragraph 29.f, landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Upon their arrival, a driver for FRED DAIBES, the defendant (“DAIBES’s Driver”), picked up MENENDEZ and NADINE MENENDEZ from the airport and drove them to their home in New Jersey. The next day, MENENDEZ performed a web search for “how much is one kilo of gold worth.” As discussed herein, multiple gold bars provided by DAIBES were found during the court-authorized June 2022 search of MENENDEZ and NADINE MENENDEZ’s residence.

This is like something out of Veep. Glad to be back in the golden era of silly scandals.

Hoping that Menendez gets the boot. It’s despicable how he’s trying to frame this as a racist attack on his corrupt *ss.

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

https://twitter.com/prem_thakker/status/1705234303326511138?s=20


Paragraph 42 of the indictment is also downright comical:

42. On or about October 17, 2021, ROBERT MENENDEZ and NADINE MENENDEZ, a/k/a “Nadine Arslanian,” the defendants, returned from Egypt as described in paragraph 29.f, landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Upon their arrival, a driver for FRED DAIBES, the defendant (“DAIBES’s Driver”), picked up MENENDEZ and NADINE MENENDEZ from the airport and drove them to their home in New Jersey. The next day, MENENDEZ performed a web search for “how much is one kilo of gold worth.” As discussed herein, multiple gold bars provided by DAIBES were found during the court-authorized June 2022 search of MENENDEZ and NADINE MENENDEZ’s residence.

This is like something out of Veep. Glad to be back in the golden era of silly scandals.

Hoping that Menendez gets the boot. It’s despicable how he’s trying to frame this as a racist attack on his corrupt *ss.

If this wasn’t his like third investigation and second indictment he might be able to play the race card. But that ship has sailed.

[Pericles]

Looks like Democrats might force him out-part of the reason they forced Al Franken out was that Roy Moore's pedophilia was in the news at the time.

[Oryxslayer]

It's still very early but I'm noting that the calls to resign are almost entirely coming from the genteel suburbs, with the very notable exceptions of Jones (East Orange), Fulop (Jersey City, but a longtime personal rival) and Currie (Paterson).

If Payne, Baraka, Norcross, Booker, Stack, etc. were to come out and call for resignation, I think then it would truly be over. But Menendez actually does have a slim chance of surviving on a purely urban base by playing this ethnicity card, especially if he faces two or more challengers.

The Bergen, Middlesex, Essex & also Statewide, Passaic, and Morris county chairs all called for him to resign as of 1 hour ago. That's literally the northern urban Democratic machine right there except maybe Union and Hudson. Pascrell and Pallone also joined in after the governor-led mass denouncement.

There is no divide lol, the dam broke.

[Senator Incitatus]

It's still very early but I'm noting that the calls to resign are almost entirely coming from the genteel suburbs, with the very notable exceptions of Jones (East Orange), Fulop (Jersey City, but a longtime personal rival) and Currie (Paterson).

If Payne, Baraka, Norcross, Booker, Stack, etc. were to come out and call for resignation, I think then it would truly be over. But Menendez actually does have a slim chance of surviving on a purely urban base by playing this ethnicity card, especially if he faces two or more challengers.

The Bergen, Middlesex, Essex & also Statewide, Passaic, and Morris county chairs all called for him to resign as of 1 hour ago. That's literally the northern urban Democratic machine right there except maybe Union and Hudson. Pascrell and Pallone also joined in after the governor-led mass denouncement.

There is no divide lol, the dam broke.

Pascrell is the only person or group here who has a predominantly urban base; even the Essex County party is increasingly run out of Montclair.

Menendez has vowed to fight on and the silence of the state's urban black and Hispanic leadership (again, for now) is the main reason why he's not yet doomed.

edit: Scutari did call on him to resign, though like Pascrell he is an old-line white ethnic urban.

Anyway, the point of my post was to note an interesting trend in the calls for his resignation but not to say he'll actually hang on. My guess is the dam will actually break sometime soon, with Booker or an ambitious figure like Baraka pulling the trigger. I would say the chances Menendez holds his small, silent coalition together is something like <25%, and the chances that he could ride it to victory even if does are also something like that.

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/maxpcohen/status/1705369375036039504

[Landslide Lyndon]

The saddest people today must be all those holier-than-thou, pox-on-both-your-houses, faux objective journalists and pundits who yap constantly that both parties are the same.

[Senator Incitatus]

This tweet above says a whole lot more about whoever Max Cohen is than it does about Chris Smith.

Basically the entire state Republican legislative caucus, all of the legislative candidates, and the Republican Party organization formally and quickly called on Menendez to resign. They're borderline calling for his execution; it's just underreported because it's dog-bites-man and they've been doing it for years.

Smith is the exception because of who he is as a person, famously neither a bomb-thrower nor a jumper-to-conclusions in the House. He is probably genuinely concerned about the standard of guilt and doesn't have a staff of fifty vetting his statements; Cohen should do his homework.

[Oryxslayer]

It's still very early but I'm noting that the calls to resign are almost entirely coming from the genteel suburbs, with the very notable exceptions of Jones (East Orange), Fulop (Jersey City, but a longtime personal rival) and Currie (Paterson).

If Payne, Baraka, Norcross, Booker, Stack, etc. were to come out and call for resignation, I think then it would truly be over. But Menendez actually does have a slim chance of surviving on a purely urban base by playing this ethnicity card, especially if he faces two or more challengers.

The Bergen, Middlesex, Essex & also Statewide, Passaic, and Morris county chairs all called for him to resign as of 1 hour ago. That's literally the northern urban Democratic machine right there except maybe Union and Hudson. Pascrell and Pallone also joined in after the governor-led mass denouncement.

There is no divide lol, the dam broke.

Pascrell is the only person or group here who has a predominantly urban base; even the Essex County party is increasingly run out of Montclair.

Menendez has vowed to fight on and the silence of the state's urban black and Hispanic leadership (again, for now) is the main reason why he's not yet doomed.

edit: Scutari did call on him to resign, though like Pascrell he is an old-line white ethnic urban.

Anyway, the point of my post was to note an interesting trend in the calls for his resignation but not to say he'll actually hang on. My guess is the dam will actually break sometime soon, with Booker or an ambitious figure like Baraka pulling the trigger. I would say the chances Menendez holds his small, silent coalition together is something like <25%, and the chances that he could ride it to victory even if does are also something like that.

I guess this is where my perspective makes more sense: losing county chairs and prominent statewide officials de facto is a loss of the Line a year from the primary in areas he would need to win. Say he won't resign, then we won't get the clowncar and he'll face probably just 1 serious challenger. Probably Kim based on his preemptively today. They will win these Lines, any others that denounce him following the statewide pressure,  any they already represent, and any others that want to follow the momentum. It doesn't matter who hands out the position, the fact the challenger will have said lines dooms Menendez. He had everything in 2018 and a nobody challenger got 38%, winning the areas where there Line matters little. The new challenger having said support in the North Jersey areas Menendez needs to win in a primary means he probably can't win anymore. 

Winning the primary is his only out, and with that door shutting,  the dam has broken on his fate. If he doesn't announce retirement or resignation soon, someone's gonna hop in and consolidate the dissatisfaction. It doesn't matter if the car is going 10 or 100 mph, the destination is still the same. 

[Alben Barkley]

It's time to run, Jon Stewart.

[ηєω ƒяσηтιєя]

Menendez should have resigned from office like over a decade ago.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Menendez was obviously corrupt in 2018 when he got Murphy and Booker's endorsements in the primary.