New Jersey and the Senate may not have seen the last of Sen. Bob Menendez.
The Senator faces ongoing federal corruption charges after 19 years of sitting in the upper chamber.
The politician has been accused of accepting cash, gold bars, a Mercedes-Benz, and payments on a home mortgage among other potential bribes.
Nonetheless, Menendez maintains his innocence and a firm belief that he will be found innocent in court.
However, that doesn’t change the fact that running for office with bribery charges is like running a marathon with ankle weights (perhaps made from gold bars).
“Unfortunately, the present accusations which I am facing, and which I am innocent and I will prove so, will not allow me to have that dialogue and debate with opponents that have already made it the cornerstone of their campaigns,” said during a YouTube video in March.
“Therefore, I will not file for the Democratic primary this June,” he shared at the time.
“I am hopeful my exoneration will take place this summer and allow me to pursue my candidacy as an independent Democrat in the general election.”
Will Menendez be able to save his political career?
For Menendez to file as an independent he needs 800 registered voters to sign his petition before the June 4 filing date.
The filing will permit him the chance to maintain his position or at a minimum provide him more time to consider his options before the August 16th withdrawal date.
But things haven’t been so simple for the long-time Democrat.
According to the New Jersey Globe, the senator has spent nearly $5 million since his indictment to aid his campaign.
He’s also begun to rely on a group of old friends to circulate petitions for him, friends such as Matteo Perez Sr., a furniture store owner in the town where the three-term politician launched his career.
How many signatures he’s garnered so far is unknown but the clock continues to tick.
Additionally, while attempting to get his petition signed he’s also dealing with his trial which is currently on a one-week break.
The break began on Tuesday, allowing Menendez time to deal with personal matters and observe the Memorial Day weekend, but it will resume once again on May 28 and is expected to last at least through the end of June.
Whether the New Jersey senator is innocent or not is yet to be seen, but it’s clear that just the accusations have done massive damage to his political career.
If he can get this petition signed it will undoubtedly put him in a better position as it threatens to siphon votes from the Democrat candidate, putting the seat at risk of being stolen by a Republican.
While it’s a better position, it’s still far from good.
Past the politics proper of the situation, voters should ask how Menendez ended up where he is – accused of serious crimes stemming from serious (again, gold bars) greed – how likely it is that other politicians are doing similar things, and whether any of them are likely to pay a significant price.
Corruption is endemic to the human condition, but for most of its history the US, as part of the English speaking, Christianized West, has been able to boast remarkably upstanding leaders – at least as far as leaders go. But as situational ethics infect absolute values and the postmodern virus spikes our vital organs, America and the West are beginning to rot from the inside.
Bob Menendez isn’t the actual problem. He’s a sign of the problem – an elite class convinced that because of its superior liberal morality (found in philosophy, not history) that it has no obligation to niggling things like traditional right and wrong. And after all, they says to themselves, given how hard the work of fundamentally transforming a country is, don’t they deserve a few off the books bonuses here and there?
This virus infected Americans as we slept, enjoying dreams of prosperity, impregnable safety from without, endless entertainment within, and drugs everywhere. Now if we don’t wake up and begin to purge the poison, we’re done for.
If we really are sick (and we are), hopefully Bob Menendez and the societal rot we’re seeing everywhere else will wake us like that horrible nausea that only comes in the middle of the night, and we then purge ourselves of him, those like him, and the viral stew of godlessness that got us to this point in the first place.
