New Closing Election Messages
John Fetterman and now US Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) become new Democratic poster boys for the 2022 election's closing days. And meet our new US "Intersex" Envoy
A few days ago, I posted about the closing messages voters are hearing as they continue to either vote early or prepare to vote in person on election day, Nov. 8th.
There are a couple of new ones, and neither is good for Democrats. The third one I’ll leave up to you to decide.
I cannot recall a debate for US Senate or any other office other than President that has had a national political impact. That happened Monday night when stroke victim and Democratic US Senate John Fetterman debated his Keystone State opponent, celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz.
First, I was amazed that Fetterman and his campaign went ahead with their lone late debate, albeit after over 600,000 Pennsylvanians had already voted, mostly Democrats. At least, without considerable confidence, he would bat away concerns over his cognitive condition following a media report about his inability to engage in “small talk.” My Machiavellian instincts kicked in as I wondered if a positive Covid test might suddenly emerge to keep Fetterman off the debate stage.
Fetterman’s awful, painful-to-watch performance exposed his cognitive challenges and looked like political malpractice. How Pennsylvania Democratic Party leaders, campaign staff, and especially the candidate’s spouse, Gisele Fetterman, let this happen will be one of the biggest stories of the 2022 election. Perhaps famed Pennsylvania journalist and author Salena Zito will write it. I know no other Pennsylvania reporter capable of writing a more fair and balanced story.
Fetterman’s performance might have engendered sympathy, especially if the glib and polished Oz misplayed it. Despite the occasional smirk, Oz didn’t. Instead, the nearly-universal reaction was one of sadness, even anger, that Fetterman was put in this position. “Are Democrats this desperate for power?” summarizes many comments I’ve read and heard. But as someone involved in three dozen US House and Senate campaigns over my career, my index fingers are pointing in one direction - toward Gisele.
And I’m not alone. Friend, Pennsylvanian, and fellow blogger Christine Flowers nailed nearly universal sentiments after the debate:
John is sick. Any decent wife would take him home, make him rest, keep the stressors at bay. Any decent wife would veto whatever desire he has to advance his brand, indulge his own ego, climb the ladder of electoral success. Any decent wife would say, “you’re still young, we can do this in 2028. Come home with me.” And any decent mother would be more concerned about her children, my pseudo niece and nephews, and prioritize their father’s health over his (and your?) ambition.
It will be a few days - perhaps a week from today - to gauge the effect of the Fetterman debacle if any credible polling tests it (doubtful). But I think we know.
But that isn’t the only closing “message.” Headlines emerged yesterday that the Democratic Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, New Jersey’s Bob Menendez under federal investigation.
Again.
Menendez was “severely admonished” by the US Senate Ethics Committee after a hung jury failed to convict him for a seven-year bribery scheme, trading his office for free trips, vacations, and worse. Despite this, New Jersey voters returned him for another six-year term in 2018 with 54 percent of the vote over Republican Bob Hugin in a Democratic tide.
Jersey voters have long tolerated, elected, and re-elected corrupt politicians. And the Senate’s admonishment didn’t prevent Democrats from allowing Menendez to chair a major Senate committee. From the Ethics Committee’s letter to Menendez:
The Committee has found that over a six-year period you knowingly and repeatedly accepted gifts of significant value from Dr. (Salomon) Melgen without obtaining required Committee approval, and that you failed to publicly disclose certain gifts as required by Senate Rule and federal law. Additionally, while accepting these gifts, you used your position as a Member of the Senate to advance Dr. Melgen's personal and business interests. The Committee has determined that this conduct violated Senate Rules, federal law, and applicable standards of conduct. Accordingly, the Committee issues you this Public Letter of Admonition, and also directs you to repay the fair market value of all impermissible gifts not already repaid.
I’m charmed. A South Florida jury in 2017 convicted Melgen on 67 counts for his involvement in a Medicare fraud scheme in which Menendez happily participated. Inexplicably, President Trump later commuted his sentence at the request of Menendez and US Rep Mario Diaz Balart (R-FL).
Now comes news of a new investigation - same accusations, different people. From NBC New York:
New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez on Wednesday acknowledged the existence of an ongoing federal investigation against him, more than four years after the government dropped a different corruption case.
Two people familiar with the matter tell NBC News that Menendez is under criminal investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan. Semafor first reported the news early Wednesday, saying the government was investigating the senator in a probe along the same lines as the last case, but involving different people. The news site also reported that prosecutors have already issued at least one subpoena.
Fetterman and Menendez won’t help with the Democrats’ closing campaign.
There’s more. Law Professor and blogger Jonathan Turley reminds us that Menendez has an apparent double standard regarding bribery.
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., is under federal criminal investigation … again. The voters of New Jersey reelected Menendez despite his accepting lavish gifts from a businessman who was later convicted of fraud. Menendez was also charged but the case was dismissed after a jury hung on the verdict. As I noted at the time of the trial, Menendez was a “juror” in a trial that I handled in the Senate and he maintained a position completely at odds with his own later defense.
In the prior case against the Senator, prosecutors accused Menendez of accepting close to $1 million in contributions and lavish gifts in exchange for political favors. The trial ended with a hung jury and the charges were dismissed in 2018.
That history did not prevent the Democrats making Menendez the chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
ABC and other outlets have confirmed the new investigation. Reports indicated that the investigation raised similar allegations to the 2018 case.
In 2018, I noted that the most poignant and powerful case against Menendez was made in his own words.
It was 2010, and Menendez was voting against my client federal Judge Thomas Porteous in Porteous’s impeachment trial.
The charges were laid out plainly before U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.):
“… engag[ing] in a corrupt relationship [and] as part of this corrupt relationship … solicit[ation] and accept[ance] of numerous things of value, including meals, trips, home repairs, and car repairs, for his personal use and benefit while at the same time taking official actions that benefitted [his friend].”
Menendez was resolute. He stood up in front of his colleagues and declared that receiving gifts ranging from free meals to wedding gifts was, plain and simple, corruption.
Notably, while many of his colleagues voted “not guilty” on Dec. 8, 2010, to Count Two (which focused on the gifts and travel benefits) against Judge Porteous, Menendez did not. He voted “guilty” on that and all of the other counts.
Menendez ultimately escaped conviction based on the very arguments that he rejected when another man stood accused in the well of the U.S. Senate. In his own trial, he called a couple dozen witnesses, including Cory Booker, New Jersey’s junior Democratic U.S. senator, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who spoke to his good character.
The one witness who did not appear was Menendez himself.
Could it get even worse? Only time will tell.
Finally, the Biden Administration this week also recognized “Intersex Awareness Day” and announced the hiring of a new US Special Envoy. From CNS News:
"The Department has made it a priority to include intersex voices and perspectives in U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance. This spring, the Department established a historic precedent, offering the X gender marker on U.S. passport application forms, which paves the way for intersex, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming persons to mark unspecified or other gender.
"And today, we are announcing that Kimberly Zieselman, a respected intersex expert and advocate, has joined the office of the U.S. Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons.”
Read the rest here.