Posted on 12/15/2005 9:53:30 AM PST by Coleus
Governor-elect Corzine’s appointment of Congressman Robert Menendez to fill the remaining year of his U.S. Senate term was no surprise. Corzine had been signaling the Menendez appointment since he jumped into the governor’s race a year ago.
In all the press reports about the life and career of Bob Menendez, he is always identified as the son of Cuban immigrants. The implication is that Menendez’s parents fled Castro-ruled Cuba. In yesterday’s Record columnist Mike Kelly writes, “As the son of Cuban –American parents, who fled the brutal hand of Fidel Castro…” stating in no uncertain terms that Menendez’s parents arrived in America to escape Castro’s brutal totalitarian regime. (Emphasis added)
In his address accepting governor-elect Corzine’s appointment to the U.S. Senate, Menendez said, “My own parents came to this country fleeing tyranny and searching for freedom.” Again, Menendez implied his parents fled Cuba because of Castro’s oppressive policies. And journalists have been inferring that the Menendez family escaped the Castro regime.
There is one major problem with the newspaper reports about Menendez’s parents’ migration from Cuba, and Mike Kelly’s column. Bob Menendez was born in New York on January 1, 1954, exactly five years before Castro seized power on January 1, 1959. Menendez’s parents arrived in America well before Castro ousted the dictatorial Batista regime. In other words, the Menendez family did not leave Cuba because of Castro. Why did they leave Cuba? Were Mr. and Mrs. Menendez brutalized by Batista—the Cuban dictator of the early 1950s? If so, how were they able to leave Cuba?
Numerous questions remain unanswered about the Menendez’s family migration to America. Will the congressman set the record straight?
The Menendez family apparently left Cuba to seek better opportunities in America, and so did millions of families from the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and other parts of the world in the post World War II period. The Menendez family’s journey to America is not terribly remarkable. So why does the congressman and the media bring it up all the time?
The Bob Menendez story is political mythology at its worst. Son of oppressed parents who fled Castro’s Cuba (myth) navigates the jungle of Hudson County politics to become a United States Senator, achieving the “American Dream.” Is being appointed to the United States by one of the most left-wing public officials in America a badge of honor, and being a political boss of one of the most corrupt counties in the country achieving the American Dream? Apparently so.
In Hudson County where politicians ostensibly go to prison more often than they go to church, Bob Menendez has survived unscathed for three decades while numerous pols in his legislative district have ended up in prison garb.
Will Menendez get a primary challenge? If Menendez’s possible challengers, Congressmen Andrews and Pallone, cannot be persuaded by Jon Corzine to stay out of the race, then the political opposition researchers may have a field day investigating Bob Menendez’s career in Hudson County.
Politically, Bob Menendez is a collectivist, an unapologetic defender of the welfare state, opponent of tax cuts and the Second Amendment, an unabashed proponent of abortion, a supporter of affirmative action, a passionate defender of the Cuban embargo and an opponent of the Iraq war. In short, he is right on only one issue--the war. Menendez voted against giving President Bush authority to invade Iraq. I would have done the same. Thus, on one of the most important issues facing America he voted to limit presidential war making powers. For that I salute him.
Although Bob Menendez took the courageous position on the Iraq war, he nevertheless supports the iron fist of the federal government in virtually all other areas of life in America. His support of the 40 year old American trade embargo with Cuba is despicable. The victims of the embargo are the Cuban people—the people he claims he loves--and American farmers and businesses that want to sell their products to the Caribbean island. In short, Menendez has played the anti-Castro card in his rise to power as well as any American politician.
The Cuban embargo has been a total failure. Castro has been in office since 1959 despite the chokehold the American government has put on the Cuban economy and its people. Nevertheless, Menendez along with politicians on both sides of the isle in the Congress have continued to support the most despotic foreign policy of the past half century. His “compassion” for the poor Cuban people is certainly suspect.
In the final analysis, Bob Menendez could have been a Cuban-American hero if he would believe in freedom and liberty. The backdrop of Governor-elect Corzine’s announcement that he was appointing Bob Menendez to the United States in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty is a travesty. Instead of supporting limited government at home and abroad--the Cuban embargo is in many ways an act of war—Bob Menendez is an anti-Castro Castroite. He believes in the brutality of the welfare state—the redistribution of income--and an aggressive policy toward a neighboring country, Cuba, that is not a threat to the United States. That’s why his appointment to the United States Senate by Jon Corzine is such a disappointment.
Murray Sabrin, Ph.D., is professor of finance in the School of Business, Ramapo College of New Jersey, where he is also executive director of the Center for Business and Public Policy, www.ramapo.edu/cbpp
To say nothing of his public campaigning against a true American hero, Miguel Estrada.
JON Corzine had a magnificent opportunity last week to send a clear message about what sort of politician he will be when he moves from the U.S. Senate to the governorship. Well, he definitely sent a message: He seems like just another old-school pol.
Corzine's message did not come as a high-minded policy speech or even as proposed legislation. It came in the form of a decision - Corzine's choice of Rep. Robert Menendez to succeed him in the Senate. Picking Menendez was Corzine's first major decision as governor-elect. In some ways, the choice was hardly surprising. It was safe. But that's just the problem.
Menendez, 51, who worked his way up the political ranks from mayor of Union City to now the third-highest ranking House Democrat, makes no secret of wanting to move to the Senate. There is nothing wrong with this. Ambition is the backbone of politics. What's more, Menendez is smart, a dynamic speaker and debater. And his up-from-the-streets personal story is downright inspiring. As the son of Cuban-American parents, who fled the brutal hand of Fidel Castro, Menendez graduated from law school, then jumped into local Hudson County politics in his early 20s.
Is he perfect? Hardly. For starters, his questionable link to a young former female staffer, Kay LiCausi, is hardly inspiring. After rising quickly to a top position on Menendez's staff, LiCausi left and set up a lucrative private lobbying and consulting firm. No problem there. Lots of former political aides do this. The problem is that Menendez, as a congressman, reportedly helped LiCausi get lobbying contracts and political consulting jobs worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
This is just the sort of pay-to-play scenario plaguing far too many New Jersey politicians. But in this case, there is an added twist: Many Democrats believe that Menendez, who is divorced, and LiCausi, who is single, may have had a romantic relationship while working together. Menendez and LiCausi refuse to discuss their personal ties and offer only vague answers about their business relationship - definitely not a good way to begin a campaign for U.S. Senate. But if that bothers Jon Corzine, who made a point during his gubernatorial campaign that he would clean up state politics, it's hard to tell.
Already some Democrats are questioning Corzine's credibility - not good when you haven't even taken the governor's oath of office yet. Consider the words of one high-ranking state Democrat: "I see the choice of Menendez as the first test of Corzine's administration. Will Corzine be a reformer? Or will it be business as usual?" Keep in mind those words do not come from a Republican critic, seeking to gain an edge on a rookie governor. The speaker was a prominent Democrat, a Corzine supporter.
What's important to understand is that Corzine did not have to appoint his successor. He could resign before taking office on Jan. 17 and let acting Governor Codey appoint a senator. Or, as some Democrats were quietly wishing, Corzine could have appointed a caretaker who would promise to serve only the remaining year on his term and then encourage Menendez and several other prominent Democrats who expressed interest in being a senator to compete in a spring primary. Or as one Democrat sarcastically noted: "Corzine could do something radical and let the voters decide."
The fact that contested primaries are now considered radical illustrates why politics is so broken and such a turnoff to voters. Far too many Democratic leaders (and their high-paid strategists) now see primaries as too expensive, too divisive, too time-consuming, too complicated. No primary; no problem. But what is wrong with candidates getting out on the campaign trail and debating each other? For far too many politicians, the unfortunate trend now is to marshal money and volunteers for the fall election and skip the spring primary - and, thus, bypass those complicated, divisive, time-consuming voters.
By appointing Menendez, Corzine has essentially anointed him as the front-runner in a primary. Indeed, some Corzine allies are reportedly trying to convince other Democrats not to challenge Menendez. Is that what the governor-elect ought to be encouraging only weeks after his election? The state's leading politician should want to expand the democratic process, not shrink it, right? Luckily, there is yet another possible option. In Mercer County, two public interest lawyers recently filed suit, asking a judge to order Corzine to hold a special election in the spring or late winter to fill his senate seat. The lawyers, Republican Bruce Afran and Democrat Carl Mayer, lost a similar suit in 2004 when former Gov. Jim McGreevey resigned and acting Governor Codey ran the state for more than a year without being elected. But the two lawyers are not giving up. As Afran puts it: "We're trying to get a fair election." What a radical concept. Why aren't more Democrats brave enough to embrace it?
I would think Castro would be pretty popular in NJ. After all, voters there elected Corzine and LOUSE-enberg.
Menendez has worked hard to undo some of the provisions in the Patriot Act.
He's anti-American to his core.
You're right, NJ voters are either closet communists or so misinformed that they don't know what they are doing. But they did NOT vote for GA Jimmy!
Hopefully, Menendez will prove too sleazy even for jaded New Jersey voters.
"There is one major problem with the newspaper reports about Menendez’s parents’ migration from Cuba, and Mike Kelly’s column. Bob Menendez was born in New York on January 1, 1954, exactly five years before Castro seized power on January 1, 1959."
This is remeniscent of clinton's boyhood memories of church burnings that never happened in Arkansas. Political "myth" is nothing new, but it's odd that Menendez has been exposed by a screwy lefty like Murray Sabrin, Ph.D. A candidate has to withdraw when he's discovered lying about his military record; what about a made-up rufugee status?
If it appears Menendez will lose next year, he'll merely do the Torricelli Two-Step. We all know that ca-razy dance !
He is, therefore, of the wave of Cuban immigrants who came to this country BEFORE Castro came to power. As my friends and former colleagues in Miami used to say, NEVER trust a Cuban who's family came here before '59!
Hey, what did Desi Arnaz do ?
he Sang songs.
ain't that the truth
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