Last Updated: 10:49 PM, January 31, 2013
Posted: February 01, 2013
Bob Menendez is certainly raising new questions about what the Senate means by “foreign relations.”
As the New Jersey Democrat assumes the chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he finds himself facing an FBI probe. Among the most serious allegations against him is that he engaged underage prostitutes during trips to the Dominican Republic paid for by a wealthy donor.
The bureau this week raided the offices of that donor, a Miami doctor who flew Menendez to a resort on his private jet for free, trips the senator failed to disclose until reporters discovered the truth.
AP
Bob Menendez
Menendez has now reimbursed the donor $58,500 for the flights, but his office denies reports that the 59-year-old senator has been traveling to the Caribbean to cavort with underage girls.
As officials sort out the charges and denials, it’s illuminating to look back at how Menedez responded in October, after US Secret Service officers doing advance work for a presidential visit to Colombia were caught bringing prostitutes to their rooms.
“If the facts are true, they should all be fired,” he said back then, though under Colombian law it’s not illegal to hire hookers.
“The reality is that the Secret Service . . . represent[s] the United States of America.”
He got that right. We don’t know yet whether Menendez is guilty. But if, in his words, “the facts turn out to be true,” surely the Mendendez standard ought to be applied to Bob Menendez, too.
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