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.
Bob Menendez: Banking (chairs the Housing, Transportation, and Community Development subcommittee); Energy and Natural Resources; Finance; Foreign Relations (chairs the International Development and Foreign Assistance, Economic Affairs, and International Environmental Protection subcommittee)
Frank Lautenberg: Appropriations (chairs the Homeland Security subcommittee); Commerce, Science and Transportation (chairs the Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security subcommittee); and Environment and Public Works (chairs the Superfund, Toxics, and Environmental Health, Chair subcommittee)
One of the major goals of the Affordable Care Act is to close the Medicare prescription drug coverage gap, better known to most as the "donut hole." The law will fill that hole over a decade, and in 2010, that meant many seniors received a $250 rebate check.
"Richard Foster, the Chief Actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), has said that "in theory," seniors would have to return the checks if repeal becomes law," the letter reads.
Yes, Leonard Lance, Jon Runyan, Frank LoBiondo et al. literally just voted to take $250 from seniors with large prescription drug bills. And since the elders of their party -- LoBiondo, Smith, Frelinghuysen et al. -- created the "donut hole" system in the first place it's obvious they really do want those seniors to owe the $250.
Here's Cantor's unreassuring response:
"If a repeal bill passes and there's any uncertainty as to whether those checks would have to be recaptured, we can speak to that then,"
I don't see how they will "recapture" 2010's check, but they sure want the ones for 2011, 2012, and especially 2013.
This will be a companion diary to Bill's excellent post this morning. We wrote our posts at the same time, so this one was held until after Bill's. - REE
As expected, New Jersey's congressional delegation split along party lines in yesterday's historic stand-alone vote to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the wildly misnamed, ineffective and exclusionary rule that has governed the United States Armed Forces since 1993 during the Clinton administration. The policy was never fair, and it never worked. Theoretically it restricted the military from efforts to discover or reveal closeted gay, lesbian, and bisexual servicemembers or applicants, while at the same time barring those who are openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual from military service.
It also has several provisions I championed, including tax relief for transit riders and to spur the use of solar energy.
Compared to the tax cuts for the rich and payroll tax issues, the solar energy energy bit is minor, but a description is in The Solar Home & Business Journal:
A bill that embodies the controversial tax-cut deal negotiated by President Obama's administration and Republican congressional leaders includes an extension of a Treasury Department grant program for solar energy installations...
The Treasury grant program has approved nearly 1,500 awards totaling more than $5.5 billion in payments, mostly for wind and solar electricity projects.
So far, the largest awards have been for wind projects, ranging up to about $218 million for a project in the state of Washington. Solar electricity projects have received the highest number of awards, with almost 1,200. Solar electricity awards have ranged from a few thousand dollars to about $62 million for a Florida Power & Light Co. project.
Basically, developers can get "cash back" instead of a 30% tax credit that often has little value, but if they didn't start construction by the end of the month they'd have been out of luck. The tendency to offer subsidies and then let expire, then bring them back, then expire, has really hurt the wind industry over the years. Indeed, solar energy stock prices are soaring, showing that the uncertainty was hurting them.
Hopefully besides encouraging solar energy, these grants will also encourage construction projects to start up now while people really need the jobs.
For a while there, it was beginning to look like DSCC had bed bugs. Bob Menendez, facing his own 2012 re-election (not to mention a Tea Party who wants his hide) is ready to step down from his 2-year stint as the Dems' campaign chief for the Senate.
Harry Reid offered the job to Washington State's Patty Murray (who turned it down). So did Virginia's Mark Warner, and Colorado's Michael Bennet. NY's Chuck Schumer (who ran DSCC from 2005-09) took himself out of the running. But Murray changed her mind; it was announced today she'll chair DSCC. Big job. This cycle, 21 Dem incumbents are up, and both independents who caucus with the Dems, Bernie Sanders and Joe Lieberman (one worth saving, one not). Only 9 Republicans are up for re-election.
One of Murray's top priorities will be making sure her predecessor Bob Menendez makes it through his "first" re-election to the Senate. Menendez was appointed by Gov. Corzine to fill his own Senate seat when Corzine became governor. He took office in January, 2006, and defeated Tom Kean, Jr. later that same year to keep his seat. But this is the first time Menendez has a longer Senate record to run against. As the man who presided over Dems keeping control of the Senate, he's got a big, red GOP target on his back. Then there's the Tea Party people, enraged by a Latino with power, and vowing to take their (ridiculous) constitution-bending case to recall him all the way to the Supreme Court. Unlikely, that they'll get there. Unknown, the effect of 2 years of their ignorant, racially-motivated bashing.
Between then and now, a year of redistricting and legislative races. A year of most Democrats focusing more on the state's troubles and its overblown helium balloon of a governor. Menendez will ramp up same time Obama will; in the Garden State, their fortunes loosely tied. It's early yet, but Menendez may have some work to do.
And, if it isn't fresh in your mind, Murray just came off her own re-election nail-biter, victorious only after a 3-day vote count. Menendez helped her get re-elected. We'll see in two years if her efforts for him pay off.
Peter Woolley, political scientist and director of the Fairleigh Dickenson U. Public Mind Poll calls the poll numbers he released today on Senator Bob Menendez "anemic" for "an energetic guy who has already served 5 years."
Menendez, who is coming off of a stint chairing the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), where his party lost a handful of seats but retained control, has now identified himself in voters' minds as a key party man. Will his out-front DSCC role (which he doesn't want to continue in, and Harry Reid is having trouble filling with someone else) hurt him if the country swings rightward? Will the country swing rightward?
31% of his own NJ constituency have a favorable opinion of him.
25% unfavorable.
44% are either unsure (29%) or haven't heard of him (15%).
Among Democrats, 17% say they don't recognize his name. Another 26% are unsure/no opinion, 10% unfavorable, but 47% favorable. Is it enough in a state where Tea Party people vow they'll take their (almost certainly losing) campaign to the Supreme Court to be allowed an effort to recall him?
And when many top NJ lawyers pointed out that Christiedidn't have any experience in criminal law and his appointment was directly connected to the above hundreds of thousands in donations for Bush, that was just a coincidence.
In July, Joel Stein wrote a piece for Time Magazine about the town he grew up in, My Own Private Edison. It chronicled hometown changes from the time everybody he knew there was white, to present day as new spicy smells waft out of new restaurants, and Bollywood plays at the multiplex. Stein didn't sound too welcoming to all of Edison's residents; his humor fell flat.
That article vexed a lot of people, only some of whom live in the now vibrant and diverse township of Edison. Ed Potosnak, whose NJ-7 district includes North Edison, was one. And he put together a petition to Time objecting to Stein's racial stereotyping.
Support for Potosnak is strong in NJ's South Asian community. And Potosnak has a couple of great gets calling NJ-7 voters that not every candidate has access to - one is his old boss Rep. Mike Honda, Chair of the Asian Pacific Congressional Caucus and DNC Vice-Chair. Another is Kal Penn, who left the cast of House to work in Barack Obama's White House and is now returning to acting.
If you live in NJ-7, You might be getting a robo call from Kal Penn - born Kalpen Suresh Modi in Montclair, NJ - for his fellow New Jerseyan Ed Potosnak. (You might also get calls from Sen. Bob Menendez, Sen. Barbara Buono, Chair John Wisniewski, Education Committee Chair Asm Pat Diegnan, and the candidate's mom Joan Potosnak, who nearly every volunteer has worked alongside by now). Kal Penn's involvement comes via PCCC - Progressive Change Campaign Committee. Here's PCCC's founder, Adam Green (also from NJ, and the former NJDSC Communications Director):
In the last couple days, over 500 PCCC members chipped in over $5,000 to help Ed Potosnak's high-energy, progressive campaign finish strong -- and defeat Leonard Lance. Folks in the 7th district should sign up to help Ed Get Out The Vote in the final days. And progressives around New Jersey can help Ed get this new Kal Penn robo-call to key voters and run a strong GOTV operation by chipping in $4 to his campaign. Every donation goes a long way.
You can join PCCC here (I highly recommend it). Kal Penn's calls:
If LGBT rights matter to you, you might wanna check out this website to see how your Congressman stacks up in the fight for gay rights.
I am in NJ's 3rd Congressional district where freshman Congressman John Adler turns in an impressive score of 92%. Looks like Adler gets an A in this class.
When Senator Robert Menendez was being chosen by then Governor-elect Jon Corzine to replace him in the Senate, I was one of the most vocal opponents of the decision on this site and I regularly implored some of his former colleagues in the House as well as other Democrats to challenge him in the June 2006 primary election.
Aside from his being a major player in the most corrupt political machine in the state, there were two votes amongst the many bad votes that he cast during his congressional career that I felt should disqualify him from being given the opportunity to represent the entire state in the United States Senate. The first was his 1996 vote in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act. The second was his 2005 vote in favor of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, which made it far more difficult for people to protect themselves from their creditors through bankruptcy.
While it remains to be seen if he will ever have the opportunity to redeem himself for supporting DOMA, it appears as if he may be willing to stop feeding at the banking lobby's trough long enough to take the right position on a foreclosure moratorium as the issue heats up and we learn more about shortcuts being taken in the foreclosure process by some of the biggest lenders in the country, most if not all of whom were beneficiaries of taxpayer-funded bailouts.
Frustrated by a lack of cooperation from the British government in his investigation of possible connection between the Lockerbie bomber's release and a lucrative oil drilling contract BP got with Libya, Sen. Bob Menendez is looking for whistleblowers.
Menendez will chair an upcoming Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing and is working alongside Frank Lautenberg on this.
Nearly 22 years ago Pan Am's Flight 103 was bombed out of the sky over Lockerbie, Scotland. All 243 passengers, 16 crew, were killed as parts of the 747 rained down on the little town known for its sheep. Eleven more were killed in Lockerbie. From NJ, 38 died.
The investigation - led by the local constabulary and FBI - took in 15,000 witness statements. It yielded 2 suspects, both Libyan - one acquitted, and Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, Libyan intelligence officer and head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines. Only after long negotiations with Muammar al-Gaddafi, and sanctions against Libya, was al-Megrahi turned over. He was convicted of murder but served only 8 years.
Here's where access to info gets tight, and that's what the senators are working on. The bomber's true medical condition is of great controversy. Why didn't he get chemo in Scotland? is just one question. But there are more, including if/how BP stood to gain by the Lockerbie bomber's get out of jail free card, with a fat oil contract with Libya. Menendez is on an info hunt. Looking for whistleblowers on these questions:
Negotiations between BP & Libyan Government from 2003 on
Conversations between the UK Government & BP re: oil and natural gas exploration in Libya from 2003 on
Negotiations between UK & Libyan governments from 2003 on
Medical condition of al-Megrahi before/after release
Scottish medical community's view of al-Megrahi's diagnosis
Legal representation of al-Megrahi during appeals for interim liberation, prisoner release & compassionate release
The approval-disapproval numbers for the sample of 801 New Jersey adults:
Obama 52-42
Lautenberg 45-31
Menendez 37-31
Own Congressman 54-28
We all know most Representatives are re-elected, but somehow I'm still surprised. 66% of the sample is "dissatisfied with the way things are currently going in Washington," yet they like their own Congressman. Perhaps there is something to be said for the way district boundaries are drawn? In any case, this suggests to me that the NJ3 race is the only one to be competitive. Most New Jersey adults (51%) think it doesn't make any difference who controls Congress, with the parties splitting the remainder equally. That's the disillusionment that the Republicans sought with their "Party of No" strategy in the Senate thanks to the super-majority rules.
A comment on Bob Menendez: He just isn't as well known. Not only his overall disapprove, but the subgroups of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans have virtually identical "disapproval ratings" as Lautenberg does. His missing approval numbers are in the volunteered "Don't Know" category, at least in this poll, and at the end of the 2012 those voters who like the very same acts by Obama and Lautenberg will vote for Menendez. You may recall that other pollsters recently found Menendez at a net plus 7 (50-43, Rasmussen) and minus 5 (38-43, Quinnipiac.) But look at how pollsters can differ: Rasmussen's automated poll of "likely voters," which (I think) pushes voters for a second choice, has only 7% "don't know" but Monmouth's poll of adults, with presumably no pushing from the human operators, has 32%. Lots of people don't vote! The pollster also has numbers showing there's not much support for the recall effort.
The headline for the energy poll was the offshore oil drilling:
Just 31% of Garden State residents are in favor of drilling for oil or gas off the New Jersey coast, while 63% are opposed. This marks a turnaround from two years ago, when a majority of 56% favored this energy option compared to only 36% who opposed it.
By comparison, support for both wind and nuclear energy remains basically unchanged. Fully 8-in-10 residents support the placement of energy-generating windmills off the New Jersey coast (80% today, compared to 82% in 2008) and just under 4-in-10 support building another nuclear power plant in the state (37% today, compared to 41% in 2008).
Pollster Patrick Murray observes that the coastal counties give the same numbers as the inland ones.
As for this Salem County resident, I think the interesting number is that 58% statewide oppose a new nuclear power plant.
When asked "which of the following do you think should be the more important priority for U.S. energy policy - keeping energy prices low or protecting the environment?", 28% go for low prices and 55% for the environment. 15% volunteer "both" despite not being given it as a choice. New Jersey is not Sarah Palin country.
Senator Menendez appeared this morning on Meet the Press with David Gregory in his role as DSCC chairman. They were joined by his counterpart at the RSCC and the heads of the RCCC and DCCC to talk about the upcoming 2010 election.
Following his appearance, this is what the Senator had to say via tweet:
On Meet the Press, my Republican colleagues couldn't name a single difference than what they did under the Bush economic agenda. More debtless than a minute ago via UberTwitterSen. Robert Menendez SenatorMenendez
Yesterday, I noted that the Tea Party is mad at Senator Menendez for -- get this -- leading the charge to re-imprison the bomber of Pan Am Flight 103 and investigate BP's part in trading justice for oil drilling contracts in Libya.
The tea partiers, who often chide others as neglectful of the text of the U.S. Constitution, are angry that Menendez is pursuing the Lockerbie/BP criminals when he didn't give the federal government greater surveillance powers (but that was during the Bush administration, so it's OK!). Never mind that pursuing a mass-murderer and reducing civil liberties are not one in the same -- they think he's a hypocrite.
Of course, they also think there's nothing hypocritical about pocket-constitution-thumping when they're trying to disrupt more than two centuries of the constitutionally designated six-year Senate term. Whatever suits their partisan agenda.
And -- surprise! -- the Tea Party also cited a vote that was wrong, wrong, wrong. They claimed Menendez voted against implementing the 9/11 commission recommendations. Except he didn't. Not in the least. He voted against a motion that would gut the bill. He happened to be a co-sponsor of the bill that passed the Senate, and the original sponsor of the bill introduced in the House in 2006.
In response came this gem from Rob Asaro-Angelo: "If this Tea Party organization misrepresents a fact so basic as Senator Menendez's leadership on the 9/11 Commission bill, it has to make people wonder what else they are misleading about. You have to fact-check what you read on the internet, but I guess that's too much to ask from the folks who founded Conservapedia."
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