Free Republic

The Obama administration appears to be on the verge of a diplomatic breakthrough with Iran after three and a half decades of low-level warfare. Now comes the hard part: convincing Congress. Skeptical lawmakers are gearing up to thwart efforts to lift the pressure on Iran. Senate Foreign Relations ranking member Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) warned this week that he may introduce legislation making it harder for President Obama to loosen existing sanctions, while several others have vowed to slap on new ones. “The United States should negotiate from a position of strength, not weakness,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a possible 2016...

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee criticized the Obama administration at a hearing on Capitol Hill Thursday, calling the administration's reluctance to fully back Syrian rebels an “embarrassment.” "Today's hearing left me bewildered that this government does not have a strategy as to Syria," Sen. Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey, said in an interview with CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper." Syria's chemical weapons post a threat to national security...

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Lonegan today urged House Republicans "not to capitulate to the president's unreasonable demands. When I win, Obama will fold." Lonegan says his internal polling shows a neck-and-neck race in the U.S. Senate contest and that all the momentum is in his favor. "My victory in this election on Wednesday will send a message to Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi that the American people want an end to Obamacare and the rest of the President's radical agenda." The former three-term Bogota mayor called on Republicans to stop listening to the same consultants and pollsters...

Via the Free Beacon and the Corner. No surprise that two of O’s few Syria allies in Congress would be outraged on his behalf by Putin’s latest humiliation, but honestly, I’ve been against striking Syria all along and I was irritated by the op-ed too. Makes me wonder how many doves on the Hill are starting to chafe at the obvious enjoyment the Kremlin and its client are taking in embarrassing the White House, notwithstanding the fact that our president spent a full year moronically bumbling his way into this mess. You may hate having Ryan Leaf at quarterback, but...

A controversial donor with ties to prominent Democrats who is under investigation by the FBI may not have the qualifications he claims. The resume of Dr. Salomon Melgen, a Florida-based ophthalmologist and controversial Democratic donor, boasts medical education and experience at Harvard University, Yale University, and the University of Missouri. But none of those schools says it can find any record of Melgen, who claims to be a Harvard alumnus, the former chief resident of the University of Missouri’s ophthalmology department, and a former Yale intern. Questions concerning Melgen’s background are also coming to light. According to his biography, posted...

METUCHEN – GOP Senate candidate Steve Lonegan opened his main headquarters here this morning, bashing Obama Democrats, dismissing Newark Mayor Cory Booker as a "failed mayor," and lustily embracing the movement conservative wing of the Republican Party. “You pick a mentor when you go to the U.S. Senate,” the Republican front-runner told a roomful of backers. “My two choices are Rand Paul and Ted Cruz.” Proudly pro life and pro gun, Lonegan said he couldn’t wait to see the look on the face of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) on the occasion of Lonegan’s inaugural escort at the Capitol Building....

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), a member of the Senate’s “Gang of Eight,” told liberal activists at the Center for American Progress (CAP) on Wednesday how the Democrats plans to enact amnesty for the 11 million illegal immigrants: Get the House to pass whatever immigration bills it likes, then go to “conference” with the Senate bill. “Get us to a conference," Menendez pleaded with the liberal activists, according to Slate’s Dave Weigel. "In a conference, we can negotiate the notion of bringing all those bills together and get to common ground."

Sen. Robert Menendez wooed a married newspaper publisher, taking the attractive brunette on a romantic getaway to the Caribbean, a tipster alleges. The New Jersey Dem and Cecilia Reynolds jetted to Puerto Rico, where they stayed at the isolated beach retreat of the island’s then-governor, Anibal Acevedo Vila. In a photo provided by the anonymous informant, Reynolds is sitting naked on a beach and suggestively smiling at the camera. In another set of pictures, they take turns posing against the same sunset backdrop. The happy couple, dressed in shorts, also appeared to tour a national park and pose for a...

WASHINGTON — Senator Robert Menendez sought to discourage any plan by the United States government to donate port security equipment to the Dominican Republic, citing concern that the advanced screening gear might undermine efforts by a private company — run by a major campaign contributor and friend of his — to do the work. The intervention with the Department of Homeland Security last month came even though Mr. Menendez has publicly chastised the Obama administration for not doing more to combat the surging drug traffic moving through Dominican ports. And it came shortly after the senator’s friend, Dr. Salomon E....

http://www.drudgereport.com/

New scandal surrounding New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, sources tell DRUDGE.. Developing late from NY POST...

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) on Monday introduced a bill that would provide arms to vetted rebel groups. Menendez’s legislation would give arms and military training to opposition groups that had been vetted, as well as provide $250 million for basic services and security in a post-Assad Syria. The bill also includes new sanctions against those providing arms or oil to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime. Menendez’s bill comes as the Obama administration is reconsidering its opposition to providing arms to the Syrian rebels.

On Monday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said that including a "path to citizenship" for illegal immigrants in any comprehensive immigration bill would jeopardize the likelihood of the legislation passing. “I think if instead the bill includes elements that are deeply divisive--and I would note that I don’t think there is any issue in this entire debate that is more divisive than a path to citizenship for those who are here illegally--in my view, any bill that insists upon that jeopardizes the likelihood of passing any immigration reform bill,” Cruz said at the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing, according to CNS News....

“That senator likes the youngest and newest girls,” said a young Dominican Republic hooker as she described in detail what allegedly went on at sex parties involving Miami ophthalmologist and high-dollar campaign donor Salmon Melgen and New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez. Of course Menendez is denying everything, something not difficult to do with the majority of the mainstream media covering up for the liberal democrat. When she heard the code word “chocolate,” a young sex worker said she and other females knew they were being summoned to various homes. She even preserved the phone number from which the...

When minority Democrats are caught in a corruption net they can’t slip out of they will usually play the race card. “Oh woe is me, here I am a poor brown skinned boy (or girl) from the bad side of town trying to pull myself up by the bootstraps and the evil racist right wing is lying about me trying to keep me down,” or something close, can be heard as a panicky, knee jerk response to having been caught after the commission of a crime. It can often signal that the final act of the drama is not far...

At a Black History Month event held at a Trenton, N.J. church on Sunday, Democratic Senator Bob Menendez blamed conservatives for his ethics scandals, framing them as a racial attack on him because of his Hispanic heritage. “I have felt the sting of discrimination,” he told approximately 300 worshipers, according to the Bergen Record. ”It has never been easy.” “Now we face anonymous, faceless, nameless individuals from right-wing sources seeking to destroy a lifetime of work,” Menendez said at Shiloh Baptist Church.

Hey, remember when President Obama crusaded against Medicare fraud and vowed to crack down aggressively on scammers who've bilked the program out of an estimated $90 billion? Like Archie and Edith Bunker used to sing: Those were the daaaays. While Democrats pretend to protect the elderly and disabled, leaders of the People's Party have pocketed gobs of campaign contributions from fat-cat donors tied to massive Medicare rip-off schemes. Let's talk some more about Dr. Salomon Melgen, shall we? We now know that the jet-setting Florida eye doctor who flew beleaguered Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., to several alleged sex romps in...

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said on Sunday embattled Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) should keep his chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee despite an investigation into his dealings with a top donor. "Sen. Menendez has given us an assurance that there is no substance to these charges," the Democratic senator from Illinois said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "It's being looked at by the Ethics Committee. Of course, I can't comment beyond that." The Senate Ethics Committee is looking into Menendez's interaction with Salomon Melgen, a Florida eye surgeon who has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Menendez and...

The New York Times has called on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to remove New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez from his chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Under the editorial headline “Mr. Menendez’s Ethics Problem,” the newspaper said Menendez “was never a distinguished choice for chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the position he ascended to this month by virtue of seniority.” “Concerns about that quality gap have sharply escalated amid new disclosures about Mr. Menendez’s use of his position to advance the financial interests of a friend and big donor,” the Times wrote. “Instead of trying...

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) defended his relationship with Florida doctor and political donor Salomon Melgen in an interview with Univision on Friday, saying he didn’t do anything on his friend’s behalf that he doesn’t regularly do for others. Melgen, a close friend of Menendez’s, reportedly overbilled the U.S. government by almost $9 million in Medicare payments, inviting a federal audit. Menendez acknowledged contacting officials to complain that the Medicare billing rules were unclear, but the senator denied that his close ties to Melgen had anything to do with him raising the issue. “The fact that someone is a donor does...