Confusion reigns over whether Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) will step down from his role as top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, should he be indicted on federal corruption charges.
The move could, potentially, alleviate the White House of heartache as it reaches a critical juncture in negotiations with Iran. But chances are, it would merely lead to a game of musical chairs, with the winner essentially no different from Menendez.
It is unclear what will happen in the event of a perp walk, with Menendez defiant and Senate Democrats currently lacking a policy over the leadership positions of members who face criminal charges, as Politico reported on Monday.
The dearth of guidelines stands in contrast to those of their counterparts on the other side of the aisle. Senate Republican Conference (SRC) rules dictate that a committee chair, ranking member, or party leader facing a felony indictment must “temporarily step aside from his or her leadership or chairmanship position,” according to an October 2008 Congressional Research Service report.
“The Senate Democratic Conference Rules do not appear to be publicly available,” the report’s author commented in a footnote. A request for more information about the party’s rules and their availability, sent to the office of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (R-Nevada), went unanswered.
Currently, the link to Republican Senate caucus rules referenced in the aforementioned CRS report is broken, and the rules do not appear readily available on the SRC website.
The party’s position, nonetheless appears clear.
On CBS Sunday morning, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said that resignations occur, “typically, when these kinds of charges are brought.”
“But that will be up to the Democratic leader, Sen. Reid, to make that call,” he added.
Of intrigue, Reid was interviewed by federal prosecutors and FBI agents as a possible witness to Menendez’s actions, Politico also noted.
As top senate Republican since 2007, McConnell himself has had one legally suspect junior officer to discipline. In 2008, the late Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) relinquished his ranking membership of the Senate Finance Committee after being indicted on felony charges of making false statements about gifts.
If Menendez does step down in the next few weeks as Foreign Relations Committee ranking member, the loudest Democratic critic of the administration’s diplomacy with Iran will be significantly weakened at a watershed moment.
While Menendez and other hawkish Democrats agreed to hold off on backing negotiations-jeopardizing sanctions legislation that could gain Congressional support required to override a Presidential veto, the senior senator and the White House have had nasty public spats in recent months.
“The more I hear from the administration and its quotes, the more it sounds like talking points coming straight out of Tehran,” Menendez said at a Foreign Relations Committee hearing in January.
He and other Democrats have said they will support the sanctions bill at the end of the month, after a March 24 deadline for an outline agreement between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
The threat could set up an intense showdown between Senate Democrats and the White House, as movement of the legislation hinges on the former’s determination of whether “Iran fails to reach agreement on a political framework that addresses all parameters of a comprehensive agreement.”
Whether Menendez is at the forefront of that fight is up in the air. When breaking the story of the impending charges, CNN said an indictment “could come within weeks,” and the senator has sworn that he would fight it. He has even invoked special privacy privileges afforded to US Senators and Representatives, despite, as The Sentinel noted, criticizing law-abiding Americans worried about programs exposed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
“Let me be very clear, very clear. I have always conducted myself appropriately and in accordance with the law,” Menendez said Friday night.“I am not going anywhere.”
If he does step down, his successor might only differ in style. It is widely expected that Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) would takeover as the top ranking Democrat, with the soon-to-retire Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) already the ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
A signatory to Menendez’s letter on the March 24 deadline and, like the current ranking member, a strong supporter of a veritable carte blanche for Israel, Cardin last week spoke skeptically of the possible long-term diplomatic thaw with Tehran at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
“But don’t lose focus,” he said, referring to controversy surrounding Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address a few days later to a joint session of Congress. “The bad guy is Iran. Iran is who’s violating international agreements. The focus must be on the Iranian negotiations,” he said, noting that the conference “gives us a chance to come together in a strong, united way to make sure we are focused on what is necessary from an acceptable deal with Iran.”
Cardin has also, as The Sentinel has reported, sought to use trade negotiations with Europe to punish the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, despite the fact that it is based almost entirely on non-governmental efforts’–an initiative to peacefully pressure Israel to end its occupation of Palestine and its apartheid system of government.
On March 2, he and Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) even introduced legislation impacting trading partnerships, aimed at “discouraging activity that discourages, penalizes, or otherwise limits commercial relations with Israel.”
“Our government should not stand idle if our trading partners use BDS tactics to isolate one of our key allies,” Cardin said in a press release, still seemingly unaware that the boycott campaign is almost entirely conducted outside the public sector.
The bad faith, AIPAC-pleasing legislation exemplifies the pressure Cardin might face from within his own ranks to use any possible leadership position to derail President Obama’s diplomatic push. Israeli officials are vociferously opposed to the multilateral talks with Iran, saying that they will allow Tehran to build a nuclear weapon–despite Israel having its own clandestine nuclear weapons program, and the fact that its own intelligence contradicts Netanyahu’s public pronouncements on the matter. The Israeli leader’s claims about both Iran and Iraq have proven wildly inaccurate for over two decades, to boot.
Until then, the pressure is on Menendez. And much of it is coming from the left. Just Foreign Policy, a group dedicated to promoting multilateralist diplomacy, has launched an online petition to get the embattled hawkish senator to step down from his leadership role. As of Monday afternoon, it had about 9,000 signatures.
“Sen. Menendez, like every other American, is entitled to a presumption of innocence when facing criminal prosecution,” the group’s policy director, Robert Naiman said. “But continuing to serve in the Democratic leadership in the Senate while he remains under a cloud of suspicion of trading the power of his office for money is a different matter.”
Naiman also noted that, while staunchly defending his senate seat by declaring he’s “not going anywhere,” Menendez could be implying that he will consider yielding his important role.
