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I must respectfully disaggree with John Podheretz on this one.

If Menendez goes down, people are going to resent Kean for taking him down. They will be looking for an alternative.

After our long state-wide soap opera over the resignation of McGreevey, Codey had goodwill in spades as the steady father-figure who calmed the waters. He can come in and do that again. If Codey is on the ballot, he will win at a walk.

The only way to prevent that is to prevent him from getting on the ballot. The time to do that is now. If Menendez tries to quit, the sensible remedy is for the NJ Supreme Court to deny him the right to quit. Once he is gone, they will put Codey on the ballot. Kean must act now to prevent Menendez from quitting.

He should publically file a brief with the NJ Supreme Court immediately, stating explicitly that Menendez must not be allowed to remove himself from the ballot. When Menendez goes to quit, the consensus must be that he shall not be allowed to do so. For once there is a vacancy, Codey is on the ballot and he is in like Flynn.

That will not work with the totally liberal and corrupt New Jersey Supreme Court. That court will allow a switch the day before Election Day if that's what the Democrats decide to do. The Republicans have no standing to do any kind of preemptive filing, all they can do is challenge the Dems if and when they try to switch candidates. The NJ Supremes will use the same twisted logic they did in 2002, that the "right of voters to have a choice" trumps the actual election law. The Republicans might have a shot at arguing that a switch after October 1 would disenfranchise military voters, because the state could not print up new ballots and get them to overseas military voters in time for them to return the ballots. Because this is a federal election, the federal law governing military voting could not be trumped by the New Jersey Court.

Maybe I am crazy, but I think the Dems just won't go there again. Kean is too popular, he was already leading when the first charges hit against Menendez, and frankly, Menendez and his machine have too much dirt on all the other Democrat leaders in the state - in fact, his machine PUT most of those people into their positions. He is way more powerful than Torricelli was in 2002. Menendez has a huge ego and he is not going to drop out of this race.