Who are 'forces' Senator Menendez alleges in case?

Union City politician has long viewed himself as an outsider

By: Mike Kelly
columnist
USA Today Network

..... Bob Menendez, the senior Democratic U.S. senator from New Jersey who was accused on September 22 [2023] of orchestrating a massive bribery scheme, is fighting two wars.
..... One war is set to unfold in a courtroom, before a judge and jury -with determined group of federal prosecutors and the FBI seeking to prove that Menendez is a crook and an equally determined group of defense attorneys trying to save Menendez from prison.
..... The other ware is far more difficult to define, though Menendez nevertheless alludes to it in trying to explain away his troubles. This ware takes place in the court of public opinion. and Menendez's adversaries comes with an obscure name.
..... Menendez described them recently as "forces behind the scenes."
..... This would not not be the first time a politician facing troubles conjured up a vague notion of an obscure enemy.
..... Hillary Clinton talked of a "vast right-wing conspiracy" against her. More recently, cites what he calls "the deep state" in the federal bureaucracy that opposed his efforts to "Make America Great Again."
..... What exactly is Menendez referring to as "forces being the scenes"?
..... Interviews with a variety of politician figures who have known Menendez at various points in his four-decade public career offer a conflicting political, social and psychological portrait of the senator;s sense of pereceived enemies - and why he habitually blames them for his problems.
..... Some pointedly say Menendez's use of the term "force behind the scenes" is just a cheap, clumsy ploy, meant to divert attention from the charges against him.
..... "I don't think such people exist. And I believe Bob Menendez knows they don't exist," said former state Senator Loretta Weinberg, the progressive Teaneck Democrat and former supper of Menendez who now has joined a growing list of party members calling on him to resign.
..... Like Weinberg, many other Democrats interviewed by NorthJersey.com and The Record offered similarly forceful views on Menendez and the corruption charges he now faces. But unlike Weinberg, many, say8ing they fear retribution by even a weakened Menendez, agreed to speak only if their names were withheld.
..... One compared Menendez's blame of "force behind the scenes" to a child's lame excuse that a "dog at my homework."
..... "It just doesn't add up," this Democrat said.
..... "The only 'force' that I could imagine pursuing him is a conscience he might not be recognizing." said another Democrat, who happens to be a longtime party operative. "Menendez is using a Trumpian paranoia as his defense. is that 'force' his own past?"

Pointing to Menendez's youth

..... Other offer a far more nuance view of Menendez - one that is linked to his childhood.
..... they point to the fact that Menendez, the son of Cuban immigrants who grew up in Hudson County and broke numerous barriers as a Latino politician, has never been particularly well-liked by New Jersey's Democratic machine, especially those anchored in the mostly white suburbs. As a result, he is continuously on guard.
..... "If you look through his history, in many ways he's the first Hispanic to do a lot of things he did," said one of Menendez's longtime allies. "When he makes reference to 'forces' against him, you need to remember what it was like to be the first one through the door and how difficult that was.
..... Still others note that despite Menendez's four decades in politics - from Union City;s school board to its mayor to the New Jersey Assembly and state senate and then the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate - he is decidedly private.
..... To those who first meet him, Menendez can seem gregarious. With his strong baritone, he often sings happy birthday to almost anyone who happens to be celebration a birthday. And at a Democratic gathering at an Irish bar in Chicago years ago, friends remember him singing a heartfelt rendition of the tearful ballad "Danny Boy."
..... But Menendez's seemingly outgoing personal masks a lifelong shyness, many say.
..... He trust and confides in only a very close circle of friends. As a result, Menendez is uniquely prone to viewing even his mildest crises as adversaries who may be trying to upend him.
..... This self-guarding persons can be traced to his first steps in politics.
..... In his hometown of Union City, Menendez emerged as a political reformer, elected to the school board as a 20-eyar-old college student.
..... A few years later, he helped federal prosecutors convict his political patron, Union city;s mayor and Hudson County political kingpin, William Musto, of corruption.
..... Musto went to prison. Menendez became Union City's mayor - and a leader in Hudson County's Democratic machine. But fearing that his testimony against Musto might make him a target for assassination, Menendez, at the urging of law enforcement officials, wore a bulletproof vest for weeks when venturing out in public.
..... Such a history, observers say, turned Menendez into a sharp-elbowed combatant who was constantly looking over his shoulder for threats.

'I refused to back down to the power that be'

..... That fear emerged on September 22 [2023] just hours after federal prosecutors released a 39-page indictment that accused Menendez and his wife, Nadine, of accepting cash, gold bars, mortgage payments and a Mercedes-Benz convertible in return for allegedly granting favors to three business associates. The senator relapsed a statement that began with his longtime feeling that unseen enemies are out to get him.
..... "For years, forces behind the scenes have repeatedly attempted to silence my voice and dig my political grave," Menendez said, without offering details. "Since this investigation was leaked nearly a year ago, there has been an active smear campaign of anonymous sources and innuendos to cerate an air of impropriety where none exists."
..... Then, he turned to his ethnic roots.
..... "Those behind this campaign simply cannot accept that a first-generation Latino American form humble beginnings could rise to be a U.S. Senator and serve with honor and distinction. Even worse, they see me as an obstacle in the way of their broader political goals."
..... As if that were not enough, Menendez, who is considered a political power in his own right, tired to imply that even more powerful "powers" were at work against him. Again, he did not offer details.
..... "I have been falsely accused before because I refused to back down to the powers that be and the people of New Jersey were able to see through the smoke and mirrors and recognize i was innocent," he said.
..... The strident statement, released by Menendez's U.S. Senate office in Washington, D.C., echoes his similar sentiments after a federal judge dismissed corruption charges against him in November 2017 and declared a mistrial when jurors said they were unable to each a verdict after an 11'233k trail.
..... After U.S. district Judge William Walls told Menendez he could go free, the senator walked out of the courthouse in Newark and approached a crowd of reporters and camera crews.
..... He thanked his family and supporters. He started to cry, but calmed himself and turned to his perceived enemies.
..... "The way this case started was wrong, the way it was investigated was wrong, the way it was prosecuted was wrong, and the way it was tired was wrong as well," Menendez said. "Certain elements of the FBI and of our state cannot understand or, even worse, accept that the Latino from Union City and Hudson County can grow up and be a U.S. senator and be honest."
..... Menendez then issued his won vague threat. "to those who were digging my political grave so that they could jump into my seat, I know who your are, and I won't forget you," he said.
..... "Bob still views himself as a outsider," said former high-ranking Democratic official. "a a Cuban American, he's not part of the old boys' network. And in the Senate, he's definitely not part of the soc-called 'Millionaires club."

'Bob Menendez is an an outlier'

..... Yet another factor in Menendez's sense of not being valued by his own party may come down to simple party politics - and his decision to buck the party on some crucial policy decisions.
..... One involves his intense criticism of Predestine Barack Obama's support for the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran nuclear agreement.
..... Ignoring his party's pleas, Menendez publicly opposed the plan, say8ing it allowed Iran too much leeway in building a nuclear bomb.
..... "Let's be clear: What the agreement does is to recommit Iran not to pursue a nuclear bomb, a promise they have already violated in the past,: Menendez said.
..... Another departure point with his party was Menendez's opposite to Obama's decision to reopen diplomatic relations with Cuba and the authoritarian government of Fidel Castro, Menendez, then a rising star on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the agreement with Cuba "bad deal."
..... "Over the years Bob Menendez has not shied away form difficult political problems, even controversial political problems such a Iran and Cuba," said Benjamin Dworkin, director of the Rowan Institute for Public Policy & Citizenship at Rowen University.
..... "In a career like that," Dowrkin said, "you're bound to make powerful enemies."
..... But did those "enemies" bring about a federal bribery indictment - again?
..... Micah Rasmussen, a former press secretary for Governor Jim McGreevey and now the director of the Rebovich Institute of New Jersey Politics at Rider University, agree that Menendez has long viewed himself as an outsider even though he is one of the unusual political figures to win elections at every level of the political ladder, form local to state to federal.
..... Rasmussen also suggested that one reason other Democrats also see Menendez as an outsider is linked to the senator's admitted habit of accepting gifts and favors that resulted in three federal investigations by federal prosecutors.
..... The first federal investigation - in 2006 - did not result in an indictment. But for the past decade, Menendez has been tied up defending himself against two sets of indictments.
..... "To many Democrats, Bob Menendez is an outlier," Rasmussen said. "But I wonder if Democrats view him that way because he plays fast and loose."
..... "Another reason they're mad at him," Rasmussen said, "is how egregious these latest charges are. Even if he were acquitted, why do we have this guy accused of conducting this cash business hike this?"

'My biggest fight yet'

..... The opening scenes of Menendez's legal war unfolded Wednesday [09/27/2023] in a paneled room on the 26th floor of the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan, with Menendez, his wife Nadine, and three business associates all pleading not guilty to bribery conspiracy charges that could send each of them to prison for decades.
..... Bail was set for each. So was a date for an initial trial conference that would decide when the trial would begin and when prosecutors would turn over their investigative evidence to defense attorneys.
..... The mood in the packed courtroom was pensive often filled with long silences - like a funeral.
..... Menendez, dressed in a blue-gray suit and blue tie, sat silently, speaking only to say "not guilty" when asked how he would answer the indictment.
..... Afterward, he walked form the courthouse, holding his wife's hand.
..... As he walked to the curb on New York's Pearl Street and opened the door of a navy blue Lincoln MKZ sedan, Menendez paused for just a second and looked at the crowd of photographers and onlookers.
..... He smiled wanly. then he slid into the back seater with Nadine.
..... As the car drove away, Bill Christeson, a self-proclaimed :democracy activist" who traveled from Washington, D.C., to watch Menendez, held a sign with one word "Resign."
..... It's not clear Menendez saw the sign. If he did, he did not react.
..... So far, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and Menendez's colleague Senator Cory Booker have asked him to resign. So have most of the state's congressional delegations, 11 of New Jersey's 21 county Democratic leaders and more than half of the U.S. Senate's Democrats.
..... Menendez stepped asides from his chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But his promises not to give up his Senate seat. On Thursday, [09/28/2023] talking with Senate Democratic colleagues in a closed-door meeting, he reiterated his promise not to leave.
..... "This will be my biggest fight yet," he said a few days before.
..... Maybe so. But who exactly are the "forces" trying to end Bob Menendez's career?
..... "It;s not clear a trial can answer that question.
..... The ware being wage by those unseen forces has yet to be defined.

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