In between Moran says that 'On the merits, it was a crazy move." He presents, without any direct quotes or sources, a number of "juiciest" rumors that make Menendez look bad. He also examines the political "backfire" this will cause with the state and federal Democrats, again without any direct quotes or sources. Then he explores the revenge factor, and states that Menedez might be doing it because he doesn't like fellow US Senator Frank Lautenberg.
Finally Moran reveals that Menendez has a stated reason for blocking the -- and Menendez provided it to Moran before Moran engaged in all the gossiping in the column -- appointment:
Menendez said he asks a routine set of questions for nominees to the Court of Appeals, and she blew several of them. He blocked Shwartz's nomination in secret, using one of the arcane rules of the Senate, because he didn't want to besmirch her legal reputation, he says.
Once he was accused, however, of blocking her out of revenge on Nobile, Menendez felt he had to go public.
"She misapplied the law and I was taken aback," Menendez says. "I waited to talk to my chief counsel, who was there, and said, 'Did I get that wrong or did she misapply the law?' And he said, 'No, she misapplied the law.' "
Huh. That could be true, and actual rational reason for denying someone a position that is, as Moran says above, is "just one step below the U.S. Supreme Court."
So after gossiping about possible terrible things people could think without using any named sources, and revealing a compelling reason to oppose a nominee, Moran ends with this:
Not a good start to 2012 for the junior senator from New Jersey.
It's the kind of gossip and innuendo that we loved in the old days of PoliticsNJ, back when Wally Edge ran the show and it was essentially a gossip sheet. We expected it there, because that was what it was all about.
But the Star-Ledger is not a gossip sheet, and the senior editorial writer is not an anonymous gossip columnist enjoying the inter-personal bickering and fighting among the political class.
This column could have been written in a factual way that presented both sides evenly, that provided the information that people thought Menendez was acting improperly but that Menendez denied it. Instead Moran's column is structured to portray Menendez's use of Senatorial Courtesy in the absolute worst light, going through all the innuendo and supposition before providing the senator's position. Such a spin is easy to do for any writer of skill and even easier for such a writer with a huge platform.
It makes you wonder if the pot is calling the kettle black, and this is a column "based on lust for revenge or jealousy."
Jay Lassiter's Blue Jersey diary, Paging Bill Pascrell, posted at 09:43:28am today, is already out-of-date.
And that's good news.
Garden State Equality just announced a few minutes ago, that the Respect for Marriage Act, intended to repeal DOMA, is now a clean sweep of support by NJ Democratic members of Congress:
BREAKING NEWS: Every Democrat in the New Jersey Congressional delegation is now a sponsor of the Respect for Marriage Act to repeal DOMA. That includes Senator Lautenberg and Senator Menendez, and Congressmen Andrews, Holt, Pallone, Payne, Rothman and Sires - and Congressman Pascrell just told us that he, too, will sponsor. (To facebook supporters, it urges): Click LIKE to thank our unanimous Democratic Congressional delegation.
I don't know if Jay's diary helped edge Rep. Pascrell into our column on this, or if his decision was already made. Doesn't matter. His support on this issue is very welcome.
Just yesterday, Jeff Gardner wrote about Senator Bob Menendez joining the marriage equality efforts, long in coming, and gratifying.
For disclosure's sake, as I've said here before, I'm a member of GSE's board. I'd be writing about this anyway. It's exciting stuff.
Surely by now you've heard that Senator Bob Menendez has signed on to co-sponsor the (LGBT-friendly) Respect for Marriage Act.
Good deal.
Now I don't have an official whip count, but based on lists I've seen, Congressman Bill Pascrell is the only Democrat in the New Jersey delegation to not sign on to this bill. Last I checked, fighting anti-gay discrimination is a part of the Democratic party platform, so surely the Congressman will be on board soon.
So WTF, Pascrell? Don't you want to come to my gay wedding?
UPDATE: We know a little more now about how this video was compiled. Senator Lautenberg with his staff took the initiative, in recognition of National Bullying Prevention Month, which is October. To accommodate busy schedules, blocks of time over two weeks were reserved at the Capitol Visitor Center Recording Studio, with invitations to members of NJ's congressional delegation to record. There are a few faces missing - it would be even better with Reps. Andrews, Garrett, Frelinghuysen, Pallone and Smith. And we must point out that Lance & LoBiondo voted NO on DADT repeal, as Runyan might have but he wasn't sworn in yet. But the effort, and especially Senator Lautenberg's initiative, are much appreciated.
BTW - I'm told this is the first-ever It Gets Better video that includes elected Republicans.
The New Jersey suicide of Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi and other other young gay people prompted the It Gets Better Project, a labor of love from columnist Dan Savage and his husband Terry Miller. The project took off like wildfire; over the last year celebrities, sports teams, and ordinary people have turned their webcams on themselves to give encouragement to teens and kids of a welcoming future for themselves. And those videos, some of them simple and low-tech, made by ordinary people, are bouncing all over the internet.
Last month, an upstate New York 14-year-old named Jamey Rodemeyer killed himself outside his house. A smart kid, with supportive parents, and friends who cared about him. A kid whose NY state senator had led other Republicans to reverse course and help pass marriage equality in New York State, in part after Jamey's hero Lady Gaga had asked her Buffalo audience to ask him to. Jamey's last message was a thank you to Lady Gaga for her message of self-worth to gay kids. And Jamey had himself just months earlier made an 'It Gets Better' video to give confidence to other kids. Jamey himself died last month, after a particularly rough bout of online bullying.
Proof if ever there was any that there's work still to be done. This is the 'It Gets Better' video that's going to the press later today, with our thanks to Senator Frank Lautenberg's office for the advance heads-up:
BlueJersey turned six the other day and that got me a little nostalgic. Next thing I knew, I'm digging through the archives -- nearly 20,000 diaries --and finding some real BlueJersey gems dating back to 2005.
Some of the stuff even seemed worth sharing (or re-sharing, in this case.) So follow me below the fold to relive some nuggets from this date, October 3rd, in years past.
First, we had Gov. Christie's seemingly startled response to the whopping toll & fare hike proposal from Port Authority. Christie: "You're kidding, right?"
Next, came the inevitable: truth out; Christie knew for months the toll hike was coming. Sometimes, the theatrics fail.
Then, the theatrics behind the theatrics. Port Authority announces a huge spike in fares. New Jersey goes ballistic. Christie, and his sometimes brother-Governor Cuomo, step in like heroes to keep the increases affordable for already-strapped commuters. All kinds of political cover, with a Jersey bonus of making a governor with a rep of screwing the little guy to pad the rich guy's cushion, look like he gives a damn about you ... after all.
Theater or not, yesterday's blitz of public hearings - 8 of them, announced just hours in advance - brought out some strong reactions. Some serious hell's being raised, hard questions asked, and some mighty confused commuters are probably still trying to locate some of Port Authority's more "obscure" (as Sierra Club called them) hearing sites.
I missed it live but got about 10 emails during Sen. Bob Menendez' speech on the Senate floor Saturday night, that it was very good, and needed to be said. As the debt deal rollicks to a rocky end, we now have video of that speech. We'll have video of Senator Lautenberg's speech this weekend, next. Here is Senator Menendez:
Update: I found this table of where and what the stopped projects are. All of NJ's are at the same emerging South Jersey airport; search the table for Atlantic City.
Nearly 650 South Jersey workers were furloughed over the weekend at the FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center near Atlantic City, as the FAA halted work on air travel infrastructure projects across the country. Construction workers. Planners. Engineers. All were sent home after Congress failed to pass legislation re-authorizing federal ticket taxes - these are used to fund building projects for facilities like new runways and new control towers and modernizing air traffic control systems. Nearly 4,000 FAA employees across the country are furloughed without pay. Plus 87,000 construction jobs stopped, across the US. To maintain a safety baseline, the shutdown can only be partial. Unaffected are air traffic controllers and safety inspectors, who will remain on the job. So will FAA employees who inspect planes and test pilots.
Today, senators Lautenberg and Menendez fired off a letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell urging him to steer his GOP conference to resolution that gets FAA back up. Our senators peg Republicans in both the House and Senate for the failure. GOP lawmakers tacked on a list of provisions to a long-term spending bill for the FAA approved by the GOP-led House this spring. On that list is a GOP-driven proposal, sought by the airline industry, that would make it more difficult for airline workers to unionize.
And they're not budging, even as the FAA warns that grinding these projects to a halt could significantly increase their ultimate cost to taxpayers. Even though FAA's also unable to collect the full measure of taxes on airline tickets bought, depriving the government of revenue (with most airlines pocketing that as a bonus instead of passing that savings on to you).
Senators' letter, after the jump.
We all know the story in New Jersey. Our Democratic senators -- even Frank Lautenberg -- poll poorly on approval ratings but after much hype win the election easily. Public Policy Polling just released its New Jersey poll and we can see the usual at work:
Bob Menendez, Favorable-Unfavorable: A lousy 37-35.
But put Menendez up against conservative Mike Doherty, recent statewide winner Kim Guadagno, Jets owner Woody Johnson, or more establishment Republican Tom Kyrillos, and he polls 48% with 13-19% leads.
Remember what that means: the Republican needs 90% of the undecided voters. It's not impossible but it's not a good bet. Remember that the 50% rule is a myth; incumbents need to much lower (like Corzine was) to be in deep trouble.
Tom Kean Jr, who Menendez beat easily despite softness in the polls in 2006, does a bit better but still trails. By now, we all know that although it seems absurd, a significant number of voters confuse him with his father if not reminded.
In any case, Menendez had better run like his career depends on it. But, he's heavily favored, and this poll shows why.
ps. They've hinted on twitter that Christie's poll numbers are bad. Release is tomorrow. Perhaps though that wil encourage him to jump in the Presidential race.
As we predicted Monday night, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. empire is now in deep trouble in New Jersey for what appear to be illegal and immoral activities.
"The U.S. government must ensure that victims in the United States have not been subjected to illegal and unconscionable actions by these newspapers seeking to exploit information about their personal tragedies for profit,"
As you know, the anti-bribery provisions of FCPA make it illegal for a U.S. person or company to pay foreign officials to obtain or retain business. In this case, media reports indicate that reporters for News of the World, a newspaper that is controlled by a subsidiary of News Corporation, paid London police officers for information...
As you know, News Corporation is a U.S.-based company subject to FCPA. Indeed, the company's own website states the following: "The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) is a U.S. law that forbids bribery of foreign (meaning non-U.S.) government officials, whether elected or appointed, even if the bribe takes place outside the United States. Because News Corporation is a U.S. corporation, the FCPA may apply to all Company employees everywhere in the world, regardless of their nationality or where they reside or do business."
In finding Bin laden and bringing him to justice, we have struck a serious blow to Al Qaida's leadership that has allowed us to reevaluate the wisdom of pursuing a broad and open-ended strategy, where the mounting costs are far too high - in lives lost, blood spilled, traumatic injury to our brave men and women in uniform, and in real dollars spent. Nearly 1,500 brave men and women have lost their lives in Afghanistan, nearly 12,000 have been wounded in action. The price tag, at a time when we are scrutinizing every dollar in Washington and making cuts to critical domestic programs, is a staggering $10 billion a month.
Are you ready to give $25 from your pocket to Xanadu ($100 for a family of four)?
That is one of several important questions to be decided this week in Trenton, each of which we'd be seriously fixated on if not for the undoubtedly even more important anti-union armageddon currently unfolding. Still, these things are worth keeping an eye on because they all have a huge impact. Here are the top five, in no particular order:
1. Will thousands of working families be kicked off of Medicaid? Gov. Christie (R-Rove) has decreed that working families earning more than $6,000 a year should be dropped from Medicaid. Thus creating new incentives to go from work to welfare. Will the Democrats stand up and try to block this change (not clear from the reporting exactly how much power the Legislature has, but at the least they could pass a resolution telling the Obama Administration to reject the waivers needed)?
2. Will we have to pay $25 each to bail out Xanadu? Sens. Ray Lesniak (D-Progressive Social Causes and Crony Capitalism) and Kevin O'Toole (R-Tool) have introduced a bill to expand the ability of the Christie Administration to give away our money to large developers to include the Meadowlands. If you have driven the Turnpike recently, you may be aware that the Meadowlands includes a large eyesore called Xanadu which has been a total failure. Apparently the solution to this problem is for everyone in the state to pay $25 (that is $200 million divided by the 8 million people in NJ) to a large Canadian developer in order to get the mall ready for opening. I have two questions: could those of us below I-195 at least have the option of giving the money to a more local mall that is not 100 miles away, or perhaps have it go to the casinos and at least get $25 in chips back? And if this expert is right that even with $200 million of our tax money the project only has a 50-50 chance of success (after all four prior owners have failed), do we get double our money back if it fails again? Seriously, is this really something that the Democrats are going to support instead of using to bash Christie?
4. Women's health: what happens next? Planned Parenthood, our own Sen. Weinberg (D - Actually a D), and many others have been running probably the best progressive campaign of the year against Christie's deeply unpopular cuts in women's health. What happens next? Do the Dems take it up a notch? Like hold Xanadu, which costs over 20 times as much, hostage? Now, you may say: those are the kind of techniques that Republicans use, not Democrats. Which brings us to the next and final point...
5. Will the Democrats reverse all of their progress in making Chris Christie unpopular? For a while, Senate President Sweeney (D-Sorry About that Marriage Thing) and Speaker Oliver (D-What Happened to that Awesome State Convention Speech?) were on a roll - and Christie was having bad week after bad week - jobs numbers, helicopters, women's health - and looked more arrogant than strong. Now, Christie is going to have a new round of bragging rights from overcoming the unions' power. Christie this week looks more strong than arrogant. Are there any other tricks up leadership's sleeve to help boost Christie's sagging poll numbers?
It is going to be an interesting week with a lot at stake for our state's future. And please post additions to this list if I missed something.
New Jersey's two senators and the congressman New Jerseyans most closely associate with health care reform are joining forces to speak out against Governor Christie's "draconian" cuts to Medicaid, which will result would result in the loss of medical care for tens of thousands of residents of their home state.
Christie has shown repeatedly that New Jerseyans falling through cracks are not high priority for him - low-income women and people suffering from pain or cancer can attest to that - but in this case the governor is actually widening those cracks.
I listened to a conference call today in which Senator Bob Menendez continued to oppose the Republican plan to end Medicare (a plan which every New Jersey Republican Congressman supports.) For me, the main takeaway was that Menendez is now pointing out that the Ryan plan would lead to cuts as soon as next year for senior health care, such as wellness visits, and would affect thousands of New Jerseyans. Americans already hate the plan so this message, it seems to me, is very important. He vowed to oppose any plan that would end "Medicare as we know it," including an absurd plan from a questioner where ending Medicare was recast as somehow being like health care plans for federal workers. He is open to improved efficiencies like those Democrats already passed in health care reform last year. In short, he was excellent and we could only wish the Democrats from other states were as reliable on this issue.
I'm sorry that this is such a short post and that I didn't ask the Senator any questions myself, but when I called the state police for a helicopter to take me to work they hung up on me. Then my limo didn't show up and I had to walk a hundred yards. So you can see I just won't have time to blog well for a few days.
Senator Bob Menendez sat down for an interview with POLITICO recently, and here's that video. Menendez ran the Senate's 2010 campaign strategy, a year we lost 6 seats. Part of what he talks about here is the rise of corporate spending on the right, post Citizens United, particularly the fueling of tea party candidates by the Koch brothers. Overall, Menendez says he tracked $70 million in corporate spending against Senate Democrats. He calls it "a corruption of our election system," that absent a constitutional solution, should require greater disclosure and transparency in spending.
Menendez also has strong advice for 2012 candidates, to seize the debate over gas prices, the budget and federal spending, offering a well-framed debate that resonates with most Americans simplistic cries of things like "Drill, baby, drill." That's a particularly attractive piece of advice as we approach the 1-year anniversary of BP's Deepwater Horizon explosion and the massive oil spill that dirtied the Gulf of Mexico. Menendez is against allowing an expansion of offshore drilling - both our senators are - and has an idea how Democrats can respond legislatively to the BP oil spill disaster. "Use it or lose it," Menendez says: legislation that would essentially penalize companies that do not produce on drilling leases they have already been granted.
President Barack Obama's decision to commit the American military to the United Nations action in Libya has come about without a Congressional vote and can safely be described as controversial. Evidently the President thinks Col. Gaddafi will be overthrown quickly. Our two senators are strongly in favor. Naturally, most of our Representatives have taken the opportunity to say nothing--as you'll notice I'm doing too. As for our regular users, Couch Potato Politics thinks Obama's Libya war is unconstitutional and unwise. Here's what I've found...
"It is welcome news that the Security Council has voted to stop Qaddafi's slaughter of thousands of Libyan people who are seeking freedom" stated Lautenberg. "The madness employed by Qaddafi's guns, tanks, planes and artillery against innocent men and women seeking human rights must be stopped immediately."
"Muammar Qadhafi is a terrorist - plain and simple. Just days ago, Qadhafi said he would hunt down every person opposing him. After years of violently oppressing the Libyan people and silencing political opposition, we cannot - and should not - take Qaddafi at his word. The announcement today is nothing more than an attempt to distract and deceive the international community while internally pursuing his hunt. The international community must follow through, impose an immediate no-fly zone, provide desperately needed humanitarian assistance, and extend a hand of friendship to the Libyan people. This is our opportunity to effect change and end Qadhafi's rule of terror."
This is to thank Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez.
When I was a kid, a cousin of mine was shuttled in and out of mental health institutions. He had a low draft number, and wasn't in college, so he knew where his government was sending him. And he was terrified of the Vietnam War. It never made any sense to him, and he knew he'd have to kill people he didn't see as enemies. He would have been called a conscientious objector, had his family not seen his disposition as crazy instead of sane.
But I was a kid, it was a long time ago and this isn't about my family's mistakes. Tom was well-known in the little town in Ohio where he grew up; his father was the local doctor. Everybody knew his story; everyone knew he had problems.
And one day, he walked down to the same general store where I got jawbreakers in the summer and bought himself a rifle and a box of bullets. They greeted him by name before they sold him the goods. He walked home, and shot himself in front of his Mom and Dad.
Senators Lautenberg and Menendez and Amtrak announced plans for a new "Gateway Project" to replace the ill-fated "Access to the Region's Core (ARC)." The name is an immediate upgrade! The motivation remains the same:
The existing 100-year old rail tunnels into midtown Manhattan are already operating at capacity during rush hour, and ridership is expected to double in the next two decades.
The Gateway Project is expected to increase NJ Transit commuter rail capacity into New York by 65 percent (increase from 20 to 33 trains per hour during peak hours). The new tunnels will connect to the new Moynihan station as well as to a new Penn Station South that is connected to the existing New York Penn station, which has reached its capacity.
As the map shows, notice how much of the work is in New Jersey. That's something you wouldn't know from Governor's Christie's talk. The Portal Bridge needs to be completely replaced, because it is just too low and too narrow. This plan makes use of much of the existing ARC work. (I wonder, but this is just baseless speculation, if going ahead with it would let New Jersey off the hook gracefully for the money we owe the federal government.)
The subway plan gets a tunnel across the Hudson but it does nothing for Amtrak and nothing for New Jersey Transit. That's where a lot of these costs are.
Personally I don't think Johnson will run. It would be foolish from a marketing standpoint, and would put undue pressure on the team's players and coaches having to fend off questions from the media about whether or not they endorse their owner's candidacy.
