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The Only Thing Bob Menendez Ever Accomplished Was a Hung Jury. Rep. Sherrill Should Primary Him! [1]

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Date: 2023-09-22  

Senator Robert Menendez has been a disgrace for a long time. He escaped felony conviction by a thumbnail, achieving a hung jury, and the Department of Justice decided not to retry him. Senator Chuck Schumer blocked primary opponents in 2018 while this played out, to me one of the few disgraceful things the otherwise admirable Schumer has done in office. Now today Menendez has been indicted yet again.

Even apart from his corruption, Menendez is not a good senator. Based on seniority alone, he is (uggh) Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. I am old enough to remember when that was the most important chairmanship in the Senate, held by Senators Vandenberg, Fullbright (not otherwise admirable but a bright light in foreign affairs), Church, and Joe Biden (thrice). Menendez? All he did of note was block or slow up aid to Ukraine. What a disgrace. I have through the years written to my representatives and senators; Menendez is the only one that does not even acknowledge my correspondence. He does not give a flying fajita about his constituents, at least the ones who do not have planes for him to free-ride on.

The Oft-Indicted Robert Menendez

Your faithful diarist (and wife Helen) is blessed to live in NJ-11th Congressional District, which is blessed with one of the best Congressional representatives ever, anywhere. She is also one of the most electable. Her name is Mikie Sherrill.

In 2018, she won a district that had not been won by a Democrat in about four decades. She held it decisively in 2020 and more decisively in 2022. She showed admirable moral and physical courage when she exposed the fraudulent “reconnaisance tours” through the Capitol in the eve of the January 6 insurrection that almost upended democracy, probably indicating complicity in the insurrection by other congressmen. She serves on the Armed Services Committee of the House. Congresswoman Sherrill has made herself an expert in Russian and Ukrainian affairs, unequivocally supports military aid to Ukraine, and understands the importance of the military as well as the diplomatic side as well as anybody in Congress.

Her political resume is so perfect it could have been made in Plato’s Republic. She is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Acadamy in Anapolis, a decorated Navy flier (a decade of active duty), then became a lawyer, then a U.S. prosecutor, all the while a family person, a mom with four kids. As Assistant U.S. Attorney, she prosecuted people as bad as (or worse than) Menendez.

I believe that she would win the general election by 15 points, then becoming a national figure in a party (mine) that desparately needs a deeper and younger bench.

The Democrats cannot afford to lose this Senate seat. If Menendez runs, lose it they will. My dearest New Jersey friends of all ages, mostly elderly, half of them lifelong Democrats, some independents, male and female, all of whom vote, insist that they will never vote for Menendez again. If Ms. Sherrill runs and wins, it will be an important part of a bright new day in American and Democratic politics.

Or so this old bastard sincerely and fervently believes.

Full disclosure: I have donated to Ms. Sherrill’s campaigns, but am not part of those campaigns, and I have never met her.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/22/2194876/-The-Only-Thing-Bob-Menendez-Ever-Accomplished-Was-a-Hung-Jury-Rep-Sherrill-Should-Primary-Him

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