Dem
51
GOP
49
It would seem that Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) has a thing for five-letter Middle Eastern countries. Everyone already knows he's in hot water for allegedly being in bed with the government of Egypt. And yesterday, the Feds filed a superseding indictment in which the Senator is also charged with peddling influence to the nation of Qatar.
According to the indictment, Menendez pulled a whole bunch of strings on behalf of the Qatari government, a couple of Qatari investors, and a New Jersey businessman who has close connections with Qatar. In exchange, the Senator received tickets for premium seats at Grand Prix races, $25,000 wristwatches and Menendez's very favorite, gold bars.
As a sidebar... $25,000 wristwatches? Seriously? First of all, how many people even wear wristwatches anymore? Second, as a byproduct of that, how many people can actually tell the difference between a $100 watch and a $25,000 watch? Is it really worth the risk to impress one person in a hundred? Maybe one in 200? Third, if a person CAN tell the difference, doesn't it raise red flags that someone on a $174,000 salary can afford a $25,000 watch? One of the things that helped bring down the notorious urban boss William Magear Tweed was that he always wore a $150,000 diamond stickpin. Pretty fancy jewelry for a man with a working-class background and a salary of $1,500 a year. As an aside, some senators were independently wealthy before being elected to the Senate (e.g., Mark Warner, D-VA, and Ron Johnson, R-WI), but Menendez is not in that group.
Menendez, as you can guess, insists that he's innocent, and that this is all nonsense. And, of course, everyone gets his or her day in court. However, we will point out two things. The first is that the Feds don't go after someone (even an average Joe, much less a Senator Bob) unless they think they have the defendant dead to rights. The second is that Menendez did not report all of these "legitimate" race tickets, wristwatches and gold bars on his disclosure forms. Must have slipped his mind. In any event, we look forward to the next superseding indictment, in which it's alleged he's been taking bribes from Yemen. Or maybe Syria. (Z)