Back In the Dock

I didn't watch Donald Trump's State of the Union speech last night.  I'm actually more preoccupied with another political disaster.

Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) is going to be re-tried on eleven of the eighteen charges of bribery, conspiracy and fraud filed against him.  The judge in the Menendez case, William Walls, acquitted him on the other seven, but the Justice Department is forging ahead with trying Menendez again on the remaining charges after a mistrial in the previous trial - a trial I almost got on as a juror. 

Now, you think that New Jersey Democrats would treat Menendez like kryptonite and be eager to  nominate someone else to run for his seat in November, seeing that control of the Senate hangs very much in balance.  But no, the state party is rallying around him, as Tom Moran reports in the New Jersey Star-Ledger.  (I don't know Governor Murphy's stand on the issue.)  Menendez has vowed to fight against the charges and for re-election, and the New Jersey Democratic Party - legendarily known as the most crooked state party east of Chicago - is circling the wagons around him.  Just like when the Democratic National Committee circled the wagons around Hillary Clinton when she decided she wanted to run for President (that decision was made on January 21, 2001 - don't kid yourself!).  The difference?  There's nothing Hillary did that, despite Michael Flynn's protests to the contrary, would have caused her to be locked up.

But the corruptions against Menendez could lend him in the slammer if the re-trial leads to a conviction.  As Moran noted, the prospect of Menendez being tried and found guilty during the election campaign season would force the Democrats to have to replace him on the ballot, but they'd have to do that before the middle of September.  Even if he isn't found guilty, he'll have to spend as much time in the media spotlight as a defendant as he will as a candidate.  In that environment, the Republicans - who haven't elected a U.S. Senator from New Jersey since 1972 (to give you an idea how far back that was, it was the year of the Eagles' debut record, the premiere of the TV series version of "M*A*S*H," and the opening of the movie The Godfather) - could run a cow against Menendez and defeat him.

A fellow named Michael Starr Hopkins is planning to run against Menendez in the June 6 U.S. Senate Democratic primary.  If there's any grass-roots group out there willing to back Hopkins, I hope it does.  Look, maybe Menendez is innocent.  Maybe he didn't do anything wrong.  Maybe a second jury will agree with that supposition.  It doesn't matter; he's damaged goods.  This seat is too important for Democratas to put at risk.

But if there's one thing we know about the Democrats, they only take risks when they shouldn't. :-O

After everything I've just said here, I doubt that Judge Walls will be summoning me to the courthouse again.