NJ Senator Menendez Ethically Challenged

The Star Ledger ^ | October 5, 2006 | Paul Mulshine

[Courdeleon02]

Menendez's building: The story doesn't measure up Thursday, October 05, 2006

A house is the most costly thing that most people will ever buy, so most of us tend to pay close attention to all transactions surrounding homeownership. In 1984, for example, I bought my first house, a bungalow in Toms River. I still recall the purchase price, the initial mortgage payment and the fee I paid my lawyer. So I find myself wondering how an intelligent person could go through a real-estate transaction of any sort and have no memory of it. Yet that seems to be the case with U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez. In a recent Star-Ledger article about that Union City rowhouse he once owned and that is now the subject of a federal investigation, a spokesman for the Menendez campaign claimed the senator has no recollection of whether he got a crucial variance in 1988 that would have permitted it to be rented out for commercial rather than residential use.

[Courdeleon02]

Despite an avalanche of negative publicity indicating that Senator Menendez is ethically challenged a recent poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University shows Menendez ahead by 5 points. I guess New Jersey voters are very tolerant of corruption. It is has become such a consistent part of the New Jersey culture. I am shocked to see these numbers. It is enough to destroy your faith in humanity.

[bmwcyle]

NJ voters are crooks also.

[OldFriend]

Sorry, but the polls are showing Kean ahead by at least 5 pts.

[Courdeleon02]

I know what you are referring to. A Survey USA poll says Kean by 5 but the most recent polls FDU has Menendez by 5 and Zogby has Menendez up by 10. Source is :http://www.politicsnj.com

[paulcissa]

You wear your ignorance like a badge.

[Renkluaf]

I live in NJ, I vote and I'm not a crook. Please keep your personal and uninformed commentary to yourself.

[Kirkwood]

I bought a house a year ago and I don't recall the numbers on it. That's what records are for. I have enough things on my mind already, I don't need to clutter up my brain with unnecessary information. I'm sure a lot of people are like that.

[kevinm13]

I live in NJ and don't like your characterization of NJ voters. NJ voters have been stuck with voter fraud, Dim switcheroo tricks and corruption. We are NOT crooks. In many ways, we are victims as evidenced by the recent sales tax and other tax increases (summer 2006) by Governor Corslime rather than make cuts to some of the cushy well-protected union government jobs and spending. I personally can't stand the corruption that exists here and know there are many like-minded NJ voters who would like to clean it up. Like other types of widespread crime, political corruption will take a few tough people willing to fight big fights to get rid of the dirt and slime over a long period of time. Prosecutors and lawmakers willing to take on the unions, the corrupt payola and the slime are hard to find.

Now there are plenty of crooks in NJ (the Sopranos among other TV and movie stories love to play up on the stereotype of gangsters, mob-types and thugs in NJ). Yes we have those types here too. Thank God it is in relatively small numbers. We also have a lot of decent hard working conservative Republicans and moderates who can't stand the corruption that permeates the political infrastructure and would love to fix the mess.

State politics are not a game but a blood sport in NJ. Please don't call us NJ voters crooks. We are outnumbered by the number of dead people and Dims who have low moral standards willing to vote the corrupt politicians back in.

[Fudd Fan]

BRAVO, kevin!

[Courdeleon02]

I also live in New Jersey and thank God for not too much longer. I am retiring soon and plan to move to heavily conservative South Carolina. This State is pathetic. It has one of the most ignorant and stupid populations in this country. It has become an appendage of NYC. If Jesus Christ were a Republican he couldn't get elected here. Thats how bad it is. The corruption , cost of living, taxes, crime are so out of control its unbelievable.

[pandoraou812]

I too live in NJ. I am sick of all the people who think they know NJ. They don't. Yes we need cleanup and hopefully it will happen soon. Every state has its problems and downsides. I don't feel the need to slam other people's home states.

[Mia T]

Don't be discouraged. See below.

While this was written before menendez's latest small lead in some polls, (1) there is a large # of undecideds, (2) there is something inherently slimy about menendez... and (3) don't minimize the corzine effect, i.e., the inverse relationship between votes cast and sales tax paid.

This from RCP:

RCP Ranking: Toss Up

(September 25) The recent polling seems to confirm that Senator Menendez is indeed in trouble. The Democrat hasn't had the lead in a non-partisan, telephone poll since the beginning of August, and right now he trails Kean 44.3% - 41.0% in the RCP Average. Given the macro negative backdrop for Republicans and the Democratic tilt of New Jersey, Menendez's inability to get his numbers out of the low 40's we take as a real warning sign for his reelection. This race is not only clearly a toss up, but it is fast becoming one of the more likely seats to switch parties.

Encourage all your R friends and relatives to vote and try to flip your D friends and relatives.

[Clintonfatigued]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1714296/posts?page=1

[BobS]

I was born in Newark in 1955 when it was a decent city for my parents to call home. It took 17 years of moving gradually away to realize it's a nearby war zone. It burned down twice and the second time it was the Puerto-Ricans that stopped the crap from spilling into Irvington and around where they want a peaceful life. So we left and eventually put up stakes in CA. I still have relatives in Saddlebrook. That's all my relatives left in N.J.

[Liz]

Americans must ask themselves why Sen Menendez was conspicuously silent even as his Democrat colleagues Reps Pelosi and Rangle spoke out when Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez lacerated the United States of America

America-hating Chavez stood on the UN podium like some cheap tin god, deprecating and demeaning our democracy. Chavez later told a cheering crowd that his “brand of communism would save them from the evils of capitalism.“

Does Sen Menendez agree with Chavez?

Or is Sen Menendez reticent about speaking out for Americans, fearful he might alienate the Latino vote Menendez is counting on to sweep him to victory.

By his silence, Menendez demonstrates he is putting the Latino agenda, and his own political ambitions, ahead of the interests of the United States.

America haters like Chavez are licking their chops at the prospect of Menendez in high office, a Senator who will defend the interests of Central and South American dictatorships to the exclusion of the US.

Menendez would be a lapdog for dictators like Chavez, allowing Third World haters to exert power over US immigration policy.

As they prepare to vote in November, New Jersey Americans must tell the Chavez-Menendez team, “No thank you. You will not inflict upon our Nation the failed customs, politics, and ignorance that frame the foundation of Venezuela and its Third World class-conscious tyranny, universal lawlessness and eternal poverty.“

[pandoraou812]

I can well remember the riots in Newark although I was maybe 6 or 7 at the time. I remember my father frantic because one of my Aunts was still in her home and refused to leave . She said the Italians would protect her. We were in Glen Ridge at the time and I can still remember my uncles and father getting guns ready in case it came up our way. Soon after we moved to our shore house . My father grew up in Newark and Irvington areas.

[BobS]

Before I graduated Irvington HS in 1973, there was a forced busing issue before then. They were going to bus white kids to Newark and black kids to Irvington. The school blew up into a riot and both busses had their windows broken by rocks. Parents did not allow their kids to be bussed to Newark after seeing it burn down twice. Irvington HS was a good school at the time with teachers that knew their subject and I learned there. My family left after I graduated. Enough was enough for my family. My dad was fed up with the trend he saw around us. Judges and politicians were getting ethnic groups at each other's throats.