Tag Archive: George Santos

Senator Robert Menendez must resign, but not for the reason you think

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ)

By now, many people know that U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, is in big legal trouble, again. This time, the allegations leading to the latest corruption charges against Menendez look bad, including bribery payments to the Senator in cash and gold in return for his interfering with criminal cases and giving illegal special favors, even to the government of Egypt. As a result, there have been widespread calls for Menendez to resign, including from many Democrats. Indeed, about half of Menendez’ Democratic U.S. Senate colleagues, as well as New Jersey County Chairs and others, have now called for him to step down. It’s fair to say that such calls have grown louder and are gaining momentum.

At the same time, it’s true that in America, everyone accused of a crime is deemed under the law to be innocent until proven guilty. Moreover, it is not illegal to keep cash and even gold in one’s home; plenty of people do it. Thus, an argument can be made (and Sen. Menendez is making it forcefully, while pleading not guilty to the charges) that it’s unfair for him to have to resign unless and until he is found guilty of the crimes of which he has been accused. Unfortunately, however, neither the court of public opinion nor the U.S. Senate is a court of law, and there are powerful reasons why Menendez must resign right away.

Republicans in disarray, off to a rocky start

Republicans may have to hit this button

Republicans took over a narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday, but it was a very rough day for them. First, in a historic defeat, the GOP was unable to elect a Speaker of the House on the first ballot. That has not happened since 1923. Indeed, in the ultimate embarrassment to Speaker wannabe Kevin McCarthy, Democrat Hakeem Jeffries won the most votes on the first ballot. Jeffries was only about six votes short of being elected Speaker with a majority vote. Then, to compound the historic humiliation for McCarthy, he lost the vote for Speaker on the second round of voting as well. Then the third round. The top vote-getter continued to be Jeffries. Finally, the House Republicans gave up and adjourned until noon today.

There were also reports of a Republican shouting match between McCarthy’s group and “conservative hardliners” (a misnomer, since that describes essentially the entire House Republican Caucus) before the vote for Speaker took place. In contrast, Democratic Rep. Pete Aguilar, formally nominating Rep. Jeffries as the Democratic House Minority Leader, stated: “Today, madam clerk, House Democrats are united by a speaker who will put people over politics.”