Posted on 03/13/2015 6:31:21 PM PDT by Kaslin
The next 22 months until President Barack Obama leaves office promise to be the most challenging period in the history of US-Israel relations.
Now unfettered by electoral concerns, over the past week Obama exposed his ill-intentions toward Israel in two different ways.
First, the Justice Department leaked its intention to indict Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez on corruption charges. Menendez is the ranking Democratic member, and the former chairman, of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He is also the most outspoken Democratic critic of Obama’s policy of appeasing the Iranian regime.
As former US federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy wrote this week at PJMedia, “It is perfectly reasonable to believe that Menendez may be guilty of corruption offenses and that his political opposition on Iran is factoring into the administration’s decision to charge him. Put it another way, if Menendez were running interference for Obama on the Iran deal, rather than trying to scupper it, I believe he would not be charged.”
The Menendez prosecution tells us that Obama wishes to leave office after having vastly diminished support for Israel among Democrats. And he will not hesitate to use strong-arm tactics against his fellow Democrats to achieve his goal.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
The most challenging period in the history of US period!
This article assumes that Israel will still exist in 22 months....
If it isn’t against the law for us to talk about who we support in Israel, why don’t conservatives buy a big advertisement for the main Israeli newspaper saying we support Netanyahu and NOT Iran or the administration? Let the Israelis know that we are behind them, but our means of supporting them is being given to the enemy. We can’t let them think we don’t care. Too bad the Tea Party really doesn’t exist.
Menendez is unquestionably guilty.
If he is forced to resign I hope lard boy appoints someone who will run and can hold the seat in an election, not a GD useless “placeholder”.
Stay Puft can cut out the middleman and appoint a rodent outright. I’m sure he’d have appointed Cory Booger if he could’ve last time.
I don’t think that Menendez will resign, irrespective of the evidence against him. His Senate seat and vote is the only leverage that he has.
But if Menendez does resign (or is expelled from the Senate) while Christie is running for president, you can throw out of those conspiracy theories about Christie wanting a Democrat to hold the seat.
First of all, Christie doesn’t want to help Democrats: He just wants to look after Number One. Christie didn’t want Booker to become Senator after Lautenberg died, and the only reason why he called such a quick special election was that he knew that the same NJ Supreme Court that allowed Lautenberg to replace Torricelli (illegally) on the ballot in 2002 would rule that the special election must be held not later than the Election Day for the gubernatorial and state legislative elections, and he feared that a big Democrat turnout for Booker that day might sink GOP chances of retaking the state senate or assembly. (Christie’s claim that the people deserved to elect a new Senator as soon as possible was just political theater.) So Christie is selfish and cowardly, not a closet Democrat.
Second, that same selfishness would lead Christie to name a fairly conservative Republican to replace Menendez in the Senate, at least if Christies remains in the presidential race. Christie will present himself to primary voters as a conservative and a loyal Republican (both of which statements are partially, but not completely, truthful), so any thoughts that he would name a Democrat is delusional. That being said, he will make sure that whatever he does reflects well on him, so it is unlikely that he will try to name someone to serve until November 2016, since it would br used to depict as hypocritical given his insistence on an October 2013 special election after Lautenberg died. So, if Menendez resigns or is expelled while Christie is running for the presidency, Christie almost certainly will name a conservative Republican to the seat and call a quick special election.
But what if Christie desists from running for the presidency on or prior to the date on which Menendez resigns or is expelled? Well, that certainly would change the equation, and I think that Christie would seek to gain the Senate seat for himself. After all, the winner of a special election for the seat wouldn’t have to face voters until Nov. 2018 (a non-presidential-election year, when Democrat turnout usually is lower), and Christie’s gubernatorial term will end in Jan. 2018 and he can’t seek reelection. Besides, if he has realized that he won’t be able to ride his record as governor to the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, why not seek a Senate seat that could give him a second bite af the presidential apple in 2020 or 2024? The worst that could happen is that he loses the special election to the Senate and that he remains as governor until the end of his term and he can try again for the Senate seat that November. So, if Christie realizes that he can’t win the 2016 presidential nomination by the time that there’s a vacancy in Menendez’s Senate seat, my prediction is that Christie will name some “non-partisan” seat-warmer (which he believes would ingratiate him with “moderate” Democrats and Republicans and independents) to serve for a few weeks until the date of his quickie special election, with the hopes of winning the low-turnout special election, and then amassing a large war chest so as to run for reelection to the Senate in 2018 and using that as a springboard for a presidential run in 2020 or 2024.
I don’t think he wants a democrat to win.
But it is curious how the entire Jersey GOP just let Steve Loseagain have that special election nomination, greenhorn Alieta Eck was his only competition.
Nice analysis, Goldwater... I agree.
Christie is about Christie, period. He’ll do whatever makes him look better.
Why are you bringing up Christie? He has nothing to do with the article, or were you trying to hijack the thread?
Huh? I was replying to post #5, which was about (wait for it) the possibility of Menendez resigning and who Christie would name to replace him. I can’t speak for Impy, the author of post #5, but I assumed that he mentioned Menendez be ause he’s being indicted by Obama’s DOJ in large part because Menendez has been adamant in his opposition to Obama’s Iran policy, and a few weeks ago Menendez went ballistic when Obama implied that Menendez’s stance on Iran’s nuclear program stemmed from contributions to his campaign from Jewish donors. (I’m copying Impy in case my assumption was incorrect, or if he has something to add.)
Menendez is pictured and mentioned in the article so I don’t see how talking about his situation, and its possible electoral ramifications, is in any way off topic.
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