At the start of the new year, things looked bright for U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, Hudson County's federal legislator by way of Union City, Hoboken and North Bergen. He won re-election in November and he is in line to take over as chairman of the ultra-powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Now the committee is a punchline. Menendez has suddenly become the media's Lindsey Lohan of the Capital Beltway. I've known the senator since he was a teen aide for his mentor, the late state powertician Bill Musto, who was mayor of Union City and a highly influential New Jersey state...