September 22, 2023 • 25 mins
Join Jim and Greg as they serve up three good martinis related to the U.S. Senate. First, they welcome the pursuit of justice in what appears to be a lot of evidence against New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife on bribery and other accusations. They're also glad to see Pennsylvania Republicans seemingly uniting around David McCormick in the tough fight to unseat incumbent Sen. Bob Casey, Jr. next year. Finally, they're pleased that some prominent Democrats are joining most Republicans in demanding that Majority Leader Chuck Schumer reinstate the dress code on the Senate floor.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Welcome to the three Martini lunch grubas stool next to Greg Corumbus of Radio
America and Jim Garritty of National Review. Three Martini's coming up. Hey,
can you handle three good martinis today? Yeah? I thought you might like
that heading into the weekend. Goodgood, and good across the board.
And the first one is good thatjustice is being done. The details of
(00:24):
this story definitely not good, butwe kind of foreshadowed to yesterday, just
didn't know this was going to happentoday. But the indictment is down now
from the federal prosecutors in Manhattan againstNew Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez and his
wife, Nadine. A little bitof a hybrid and how we set this
up here First of all CBS Newsdoing good reporting here thirty nine page indictment,
(00:48):
three charges facing Menendez and his wifefor accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars
in bribes in exchange for using thesenator's power and influence to enrich and protect
three businessman and benefit Egypt's government.More on that in a second. The
bribes included cash, gold, aswe mentioned yesterday, payment stores, a
home mortgage, compensation for a Lowerno show job, a luxury vehicle,
(01:12):
and other things of value. Federalagents found more than four hundred eighty grand
in cash during a search of thecouple's home in June of last year,
much of it stuffed into envelopes andhidden in clothing closets, and a safe
more than seventy grand in a safedeposit box belonging to the missus Menendez.
They also found gold bars worth morethan one hundred thousand dollars according to the
(01:34):
indictment. So what exactly is inthe indictment. Well, CNN's carascannel explains
some of it here. Get on. So, the US Attorney's office here
in Lower Manhattan has announced that theyhave brought bribery charges against Senator Menendez and
his wife. According to the Prosecutor'soffice, that they alleged that Menendez's wife
had received hundreds of thousands of dollarsin bribes that they had done that used
(02:00):
to help three New Jersey businessmen andthe government of Egypt. This investigation has
been going on for several years,and sources have told Sena that they have
sent out rings of subpoenas to peopleseeking information about some of these businessmen and
these relationships. Now, one ofthe businessmen is someone who has known Menende
as his wife for a long time. He is someone that has obtained the
(02:23):
exclusive right to export and certify halalmeat to Egypt. That is been a
focus of this investigation. And anotherone of the businessmen is a New Jersey
developer, and prosecutors were asking questionsabout him his communications with the senator and
his wife. So, as yousaid, though, this is the second
time in ten years that Senator Menendezhas been charged with bribery and corruption.
(02:45):
But wait, there's more. Menendezalso, according to prosecutors, promised to
undertake official acts in exchange for thebribes that benefited him and his wife.
He's accused of providing sensitive, nonpublic government information about the number of people
serving at the US embassy in Cairoto his wife, who was then his
girlfriend, which she allegedly forwarded toone of the businessmen, who then shared
(03:06):
it with an unnamed Egyptian government official. So, Jim, a lot of
different tentacles here, many years ofinvestigation, but as we said yesterday,
not exactly a shock given the trackrecord. No, it's not. I
believe someone had said that this isthe first time we were witnessing history.
Dear listeners, this is the firsttime a US senator has been indicted twice
(03:29):
on two separate bribery charges. Usuallythey're all connected and related. We had
the previous one in which he managedto beat the rap, but this one
is now completely different, completely separate. And by the way, he beat
that in early January twenty eighteen,and all of these deals came together in
later in twenty eighteen. Did helearn his lesson? No, he did
not. He did not keep hisnose clean. He did not avoid this
(03:52):
look we had. You know,I was really glad we got all of
the gold bars jokes out of oursystem yesterday. If you happen to not
listen to it, go for it. But I also think so first of
all, he's up for re electionnext year and one last time we you
know, no, Democrats have bigadvantages in New Jersey. I think there's
a decent number of Democrats who arelike, please don't run, Please don't
(04:15):
run. You know, let us, you know, let us nominate somebody
else. You can resign, andwe can have the governor appoint somebody and
we'll have some perfectly standard issue Democratwho doesn't have these issues, those with
longtime memories. And in fact,the very first thing I wrote for National
Review was about Bob Toricelli. Andyou know, New Jersey Democrats can always
do the Torisselli maneuver, and whichlong after the deadline for legal deadline for
(04:39):
changing a candidate, New Jersey Democratsjust said, yeah, we think Toriselli
is gonna lose. So they pushedhim out, They brought they nearly resurrected
the decrepit weekend in Bertie's Frank Lautenbergand Lawton you know, Doug Forrester or
the Republican had built his entire campaignon this exceptionally compelling message of I Am
not Bob Toricelli and playing on therather glaring corruption scandal that was engulfing Coriselli.
(05:04):
And unfortunately, Frank Lautenberg was ina position where he could also run
on the theme I Am not BobToriselli. And Forrester, you know,
fell short in two thousand and two, which was otherwise a good year for
Republicans. Would Republicans have a shotin the general election, Look, they
have a much better shot against BobMenendez than they would against a generic Democrat.
So I guess if you're a Republican, you're hoping he decides to stick
(05:27):
it out. Your hope he does. You know, by the way,
everyone who's saying, oh, DonaldTrump has been indicted four times, he's
got to leave the race. There'sno place for him. And you know,
okay, keat, you know,how dare he even run for president?
Never mind? You know you're gonnahear a lot of people insisting innocent
until proven guilty, when they infact have not applied the same standard to
Donald Trump. Look, Menendez,these are allegations, but it's a full
(05:53):
of you know, not just likethey just just vivid, colorful details about
finding the money in all that stuff. And I also feel like, you
know, as we were discussing whattopics to talk about, we expected the
bribery. I don't know if weexpected the did use his influence and power
and breach his official duty in waysthat benefited the government of Egypt. And
(06:14):
you know, the allegation that Menendezprovided sensitive US government information and took other
steps that secretly aided the government ofEgypt, that I think is qualitatively different
from the quote unquote usual bribery we'reused to hearing about in New Jersey.
I think this is a further argumentabout the danger of one party states.
Some people might point to the recentacquittal of Ken Paxton as another example of
(06:36):
that that basically, when one partyis convinced that they're going to win every
general election, no matter who theynominate, no matter what they do in
office, everybody feels in a permissionslip to you know, do whatever you
want, do whatever you can getaway with, because the electorate is never
going to punish you. I wouldlike to see, you know, like,
if Menendez is guilty of these crimes, and it certainly seems like a
(06:57):
compelling case here, then you oughtto be convicted, and you ought to
be, you know, go awayfor a long time. If he you
know, separate from that, I'dlike to see him defeated. And I'd
like to see the people of NewJersey saying to Democrats, you know what
Democrats, First of all, like, if you there are primaries, you
can choose other Democrats. You don'thave to keep sending the same crooks back
to office year after year. Andthe second thing is what crazy thought here?
(07:17):
What if you elected a Republican oncein a while, and at let's
minimum, you give the Republicans anopportunity to be every bit as corrupt as
the Democrats. No to just say, you know what, we take this
stuff seriously. You can't just invokeabortion and scary Donald Trump and all that
stuff and win over and over again. Remember, you know, Christy won
two terms and the Republicans came closeup against Phil Murphy last nime. So
(07:40):
good Republicans wait in New Jersey again. Look, I'm not gonna hold my
breath. It's not looking great,but Robert Menendez is making their job easier,
and he's causing a lot of headacheson the Democratic side of the aisle.
Yeah, well said and well coveredin a lot of different areas.
I suspect Menendez we're tough to forceout because not running again would be some
sort of tacit mission that he's guilty. At least he would think people would
(08:03):
see it that way. So you'reprobably gonna have to beat him in a
primary. But as like you said, you could always pull the Toris selling
maneuver. Frank Lautenberg not available thistime. I would point out, kind
of apart from the details of thecase, this is really bad money management.
First of all, you should makeall your money, honestly, and
I realize until very recently interest rateswere terrible in your savings accounts, But
(08:28):
keeping an envelopes just stashed all aroundthe house, that's not how you're going
to grow your money. You needto either invest it or you need to
put an acount where it's going toget some interest, even just fractions of
pennies on the dollar, given thoseold interest rates. But just leaving around
the house, not only does itlook really bad, because it is really
bad if you've gotten bribe like that, but just just not a good way
(08:48):
to grow the wealth. But youknow, so we take away different lessons.
I guess I will agree, Greg, But I'm just gonna say I
can see, first of all,like you know, Corey, the version
of events from Menendez, the goldbars that were worth four hundred thousand dollars,
we're just a gift from a businessman. So if if people just give
you gifts worth close to a halfmillion dollars, maybe maybe you're really not
(09:09):
all that worried about, you know, your interest rates. Second thing is
is that let's say they work outa deal, Menendez retires and you know,
resigns from the Senate charges are veryminor, he gets probation or a
fine or something like that, guessto turn into some of the gold bars
something like that. You know,I could see him showing up ironically on
Fox News and saying, is goldpart of your portfolio? I think it
(09:31):
should be. Oh fantastic, absolutelyfantastic, all right, speaking of the
Senate. In fact, all threeof our good martinis today relate to the
Senate. Let's move a little bitwest of Jersey to Pennsylvania, where we
will also camp out for a thirdmartini. By the way, there is
a Senate race in Pennsylvania next year, twenty twenty four. Bob Casey Jr.
(09:56):
Is running for a fourth term.Yes, he's already been there eighteen
years after beating Rick Santorum in twothousand and six, but it looks like
the Republicans are going to have aless fractious primary this time. Yesterday,
David McCormick officially launched his latest Senatecampaign. He narrowly lost the primary to
(10:16):
doctor Oz of all people, intwenty twenty two, but now it looks
like he's going to have at leastat the moment, fairly smooth sailing because
Doug Mastriano, who got slaughtered inthe governor's race and toyed with the Senate
race. Not only is he notgetting in, he's actually endorsing McCormick here,
so that might help to clear thefield. He's also got endorsements from
Mike Pompeo and Ted Cruz. SteveDanes, who runs the set National Republican
(10:41):
Senatorial Committee, very excited about this, saying that McCormick's a combat veteran,
he's a job creator, done aremarkable job of unifying the party in Pennsylvania.
Now and his announcement, McCormick says, my opponent was born to run
for political office. I was bornto shake things up, and unlike doctor,
he's a seventh generation Pennsylvanian. Sothat's a little bit better than you
(11:03):
know, not living there at thetime of the election. Really, So,
Jim Casey's going to be a heckof a lot harder to beat than
John Fetterman, I think. Butat least the party seems to be not
in complete disarrayist time. Yeah.I mean, let's recognize that a Senate
race in Pennsylvania in a presidential yearis never an easy task for Republicans Pat
(11:24):
Toomey did it back in twenty sixteen. It's also worth noting Trump won the
state narrowly in twenty sixteen. Bythe way, ironically, they won very
different methods. There were like Pennsylvaniaand Philadelphia suburb areas that voted for Toomey
but not Trump, and there weremore blue collar areas in the western part
of the state that voted for Trumpbut not too me but both guys figured
(11:45):
out a way to get the mostvotes. In the end, Trump is
narrowly trailing Pennsylvania, not by aton, but not you know, not
the numbers you'd like to see forwinning in twenty twenty four. Obviously it's
very early. I do find myselfwondering if you had David McCormick against John
Fetterman in twenty twenty two, wouldthe Republicans have won that race. We
(12:07):
saw the you know, endless likejust the demolishing of Oz for not living
in the state, which, bythe way, considering how you know,
Hillary Clinton ran for Senate in NewYork, like, it really feels very
on and off when the residency requirementsmatter and McCormick owns houses and other places,
and you know, you know,he's got a big house up in
Connecticut, and I'm sure you'll seePennsylvania Democrats try to say, sure,
(12:28):
he's got seven generations and he grewup here, but he's not a real
Pennsylvanian, you know. And youknow, McCormick ran one of the world's
hodge largest headfuns. This guy willhave his own areas of opportunity for Democrats
to attack. But I wonder ifoverall he would have been a better candidate
than Memit Oz. And I thinka lot of people look at Fetterman and
I'm kind of foreshadowing our third Martinihere as a really significant fumble on the
(12:54):
part of Republicans, on the partof Oz, that this was a guy
who literally couldn't campaign for much ofthe year. When he did return to
the campaign trail, it was verybrief, and then up in that debate
it was disastrous and Oz, forwhatever reason, just could not capitalize.
And you kind of wonder if aguy like David McCormick could do that.
Secondly, the idea of Mastriano comingout and not just saying I'm not running,
(13:18):
but endorsing him. He's one ofthe most like pleasant surprises within GOP
party politics and their dynamics. Ina really long time, almost everywhere,
we've managed to have the ugliest,messiest, bloodiest, and most expensive primaries
imaginable very often. We discussed thisa bit on yesterday's episode. The candidate
who is most maga, who ismost pro January sixth, who was most
(13:41):
pro stolen election? They end upwinning the primary, and they end up
blowing what should be winnable races.McCormick is not that guy. McCormick is
already sounding like a general election candidate, and that's probably what you're going to
have to do to beat a guylike Bob Casey, who's again not to
use on my favorite trade. Isnot a whirling dervish of raw political charisma,
(14:03):
but his dad was governor, youknow, very famous family name.
He's got the advantages of incumbency,and it's Pennsylvania, so it's a purple
stated at best. So you putall that together, you know, in
a cycle where it feels like nothingis breaking right for Republicans, things maybe
breaking right in Pennsylvania. Still alot of road ahead, but we will
see how things shake out. Andmy suspicion is i'd almost be surprised if
(14:24):
McCormick does not perform better than Oz. I don't know if it's enough to
win, but I kind of feellike you want your best players on the
field, and McCormick looks like that. I do think McCormick would have done
better than Oz against Fetterman, andI think it's harder this time. I
guess what we learned, Jim,is that Republicans probably ought not to nominate
people who don't live in the stateand aren't Republicans. But if you're previous
(14:50):
president thought he had a pretty goodTV show, I guess that Trump's everything
else, no pun intended. Butlook, I understand the the perceived advantages
of being a celebrity, particularly lastcycle doctor Oz virgual Walker, but in
fact, like you know, theMic Dewines and Ron De Santiss did just
fine. It really doesn't feel likebeing a celebrity is necessarily a huge advantage
(15:16):
in tough general election fights. AndI kind of wonder if that is,
you know, shortsighted or overestimating thevalue of being a recognizable face. All
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right, Jim onto good Senate Martininumber three. And it's not often that
you hear leadership publicly disagreeing with eachother. And this is not over a
(17:02):
major policy issue, but it isover an issue. It's getting a tremendous
amount of attention. Last weekend,the Senate Democratic Leader, the Majority leader,
Chuck Schumer saying that senators no longerhave a dress code. You can
wear whatever you want onto the Senatefloor. And then I guess it was
Wednesday. John Fetterman presided over theSenate in his shortsleeve shirt and shorts.
Well. Most Republicans have officially protestedthat they don't like it. They want
(17:26):
the old dress code to return.Rick Scott circulated a petition signed by forty
six different senators on the Republican side. The only ones that did not sign
it Mike Brawn of Indiana, who'salready got to foot out the door running
for governor Katie Britt of Alabama,who's actually really good friends with John Fetterman
and Josh Holley of Missouri, andI don't know why he would not sign
it. But also, and mostsignificantly, Dick Durban, the number two
(17:49):
Democrat in the Senate, also pushingto reverse Schumer's unilateral decision. He was
on the Serious XM show hosted bySteve Scully of c SPAN Fame call the
Briefing, and he says, quote, I think we need to have standards
when it comes to what we're wearingon the floor of the Senate, and
we're in the process of discussing thatright now as to what those standards will
be, says he can't understand whatSchumer was thinking. Joe Manchin also pushing
(18:14):
legislation to reverse the decision and goback to the old dress code. So,
Jim, whenever you get people fromyour own party pushing back on you
publicly like that makes you think somethingmight actually happen. So what do you
think of all this? Yeah,I feel like this has hit a chord
in a way that Schumer probably didnot expect You've seen not just a lot
(18:36):
of members of Congress. I thinkyou know, if not every columns,
then a lot of people have writtenabout this. The Washington Post editorial board
weighed in and said this is nota good idea. You should meant to
maintain decorum. Wearing a suit isnot too much to ask, As listeners
know, I write columns for thePost, had no say in that editorial,
but I'm glad they said that.And before we go any further,
(18:56):
I should note I have heard theargument from some people, but the reason
Fetterman doesn't like to wear a suitis because of part of the lingering after
effects of his stroke, because hedoesn't have the fine motor control that he's
used to having, and things likebuttons and zippers and shoelaces and a belt
buckle can be more challenging than theywould be before the stroke. If that's
(19:18):
the case, then I think allof us would look at this pretty differently,
and we'd feel great sympathy. Nowyou and I were you're on Twitter
or pointing out John McCain had hadgreat difficulty dressing himself, Bob Dole had
great daniel in away. There area lot of veterans who had wounds and
who still managed to put on asuit. But if this was genuinely a
matter of like physical pain or discomfortor something like that, I think we'd
(19:41):
look at it all, you know, somewhat differently. I would point out
Fetterman has not said this. Vetterman, I mean, this is possible.
This is the case. And Vetterman, for one reason or another, doesn't
want to admit it, doesn't wantto discuss this, and you know,
you hate to see anybody's suffering likethat. On the other hand, but
he's acting like this is a matterof his personal comfort and how style and
(20:02):
how he wants to dress himself,which I think. I think we can
only evaluate it on the measures thatby the criteria he's put out there.
And the general response has been anybodywho's objecting to this is silly. Anybody
who's objecting to this is being ridiculous. And I don't think people feel that
way. And when you say,you know, I really think there should
be some standards of decorum and formalityto being on the floor of the US
(20:27):
Senate, and Fetterman says, no, you're being silly. I think people
react pretty negatively to this, andI think you're seeing this in this you
know, gentle but definitely distinct pushbackfrom some of his colleagues. I think
they can recognize Fetterman by refusing tothis. Fetterman is kind of saying this
job is not worth wearing a suitfor. And first of all, I
(20:48):
think there are a bunch of menin the Senate, including Democratic men in
the Senate, who say, yesit is, and that if we want
to be respected by the public,if we want to say we are something
important, we are something to betreated. If not with reverence, there
was some sort of recognition of itsauthority and its significance, then you have
to dress the part, you haveto act the part. This is again,
(21:10):
as I've discussed, this is nota reality show, and I think
Fetterman has kind of brought like ifyou want to, you know, rip
into the you know, Lauren Bobert'sand Marjorie Taylor Green. Sure, there
are a bunch of people on theRepublican side who seem to be playing that
same attitude of wanting to be areality show star. But Fetterman makes their
job more complicated, and part ofit is because it wasn't you know.
It's one thing to be on thecampaign trail and dress very casually. It's
(21:33):
another thing to be, you know, both in the Senate in the halls
and at committee hearings, but thenalso on the floor of the Senate and
to dress the way he does theother thing. Greg and I almost hesitate
to mention this, but I justkind of ask, what's with the mustache?
Said he lost a bet or something. Botanists are identify what caterpillar is
(21:56):
crossing, is crawling across his lip. I should not make I don't want
to make fun of anybody's appearance andall that stuff, but he does feel
like you can you can insert whatever. Look every guy with a mustache thinks
they're gonna look like Tom Selleck andMagnan Pi almost no. The only person
who pulls that off is Tom Selleck, right, you know. And it
just it's almost like he's trying tolook as bizarre as possible. It's a
(22:19):
very you know, odd one.And I go back and forth, like
again, you know, you shouldn'tmake fun of people for their appearance.
They can't really control it in mostof the case. On the other hand,
appearances matter in life. And Ikind of feel like, you know,
you can either rage against it,you know, or you can just
kind of accept it. You cantry to make the best of what you've
got there. And generally men lookmore respectable and respectful and more appropriate for
(22:45):
conditions like this, i e.Governing the country when they're wearing a suit,
you're at a barbecue campaign event,that's fine, dress completely different.
Dress thereswever you want, but inthe chamber you probably should dress a little
more formally. And the other Thething about like whether this is a consequence
of difficulties with the stroke or somethinglike that. It looks like he's wearing
(23:07):
generally short sleeved button down shirts,which indicates you can handle buttons, right,
I know, it looks like andagain I'm not inspecting terribly closely,
he's wearing shorts shorts that were youknow, then he's not wearing like sweatshirt
shorts. He's wearing you know,shirts that have a you know, belt
buckle and stop. So it doesseem like he can handle buttons and belts.
Maybe it's a great difficulty. Idon't I don't know what the situation
(23:29):
is, but I'm gonna observe ifyou can wear button down collared shirts and
pants. Then you could wear atminimum, like you know, white white
or or appropriate office casual friday attirestuff and khakis or dress pants, right,
you know, and also like notsneakers. And none of this seems
unreasonably high. If you know,if Sheuber looked at this and said,
(23:52):
you know what, We're gonna havecasual Fridays and people don't have to wear
ties, okay, I don't thinkthis would have had caused this huge blow.
It's that they're announcing it, thatthey're clearly announcing it in response to
his refusal to wear a suit,the vague allusion that maybe this is tied
to the stroke or to the depressiontreatment or something like that without ever coming
out and saying it, coupled withthe fact of he dresses completely differently and
(24:18):
completely inappropriately than any compared to everyother senator. That's a good point,
and you're right, there has notbeen any definitive statement that he's physically limited
to put on a suit. It'sdon't believe that he doesn't like them.
So if he's hiding that, comeout and say it, and you can
perhaps have a discussion about it.If it's just that he doesn't want to
do it. That's just the hideof laziness. So anyway, Jim,
(24:41):
time for the weekend. Good luckto the Jets if they're playing. I
have no idea who the Bears play. They're a complete dumpster fire at this
point, but I'll figure it outby Sunday. If they actually have a
game. So, oh, theyplay the Chiefs, I'm sure that'll go
well. Oh yeah, you knowwhat. The best thing you go with
the lowers of expectations. If anythinggoes right, that's a win. Don't
have a defensive coordinator quarterbacks fighting withhis coaches. It's all great, all
great, Everything's gonna be fine.Jim Garretty, National Review. I'm Greg
(25:04):
Columbus of Radio America. Thanks somuch for being with us today. Please
subscribe to the podcast if you don'talready, and tell some friends about us
as well. Thanks also for yourfive star ratings and your kind reviews.
Please keep thus coming. Get uson your home devices. All you have
to say is play three Martini Lunchpodcast. Follow us on Axis at Jim
Garretty. I'm at Dateline Underscore DC. Have a great weekend. Join us
(25:25):
again on Monday for the next threemartini lunch
Welcome to the three Martini lunch grubas stool next to Greg Corumbus of Radio
America and Jim Garritty of National Review. Three Martini's coming up. Hey,
can you handle three good martinis today? Yeah? I thought you might like
that heading into the weekend. Goodgood, and good across the board.
And the first one is good thatjustice is being done. The details of
(00:24):
this story definitely not good, butwe kind of foreshadowed to yesterday, just
didn't know this was going to happentoday. But the indictment is down now
from the federal prosecutors in Manhattan againstNew Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez and his
wife, Nadine. A little bitof a hybrid and how we set this
up here First of all CBS Newsdoing good reporting here thirty nine page indictment,
(00:48):
three charges facing Menendez and his wifefor accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars
in bribes in exchange for using thesenator's power and influence to enrich and protect
three businessman and benefit Egypt's government.More on that in a second. The
bribes included cash, gold, aswe mentioned yesterday, payment stores, a
home mortgage, compensation for a Lowerno show job, a luxury vehicle,
(01:12):
and other things of value. Federalagents found more than four hundred eighty grand
in cash during a search of thecouple's home in June of last year,
much of it stuffed into envelopes andhidden in clothing closets, and a safe
more than seventy grand in a safedeposit box belonging to the missus Menendez.
They also found gold bars worth morethan one hundred thousand dollars according to the
(01:34):
indictment. So what exactly is inthe indictment. Well, CNN's carascannel explains
some of it here. Get on. So, the US Attorney's office here
in Lower Manhattan has announced that theyhave brought bribery charges against Senator Menendez and
his wife. According to the Prosecutor'soffice, that they alleged that Menendez's wife
had received hundreds of thousands of dollarsin bribes that they had done that used
(02:00):
to help three New Jersey businessmen andthe government of Egypt. This investigation has
been going on for several years,and sources have told Sena that they have
sent out rings of subpoenas to peopleseeking information about some of these businessmen and
these relationships. Now, one ofthe businessmen is someone who has known Menende
as his wife for a long time. He is someone that has obtained the
(02:23):
exclusive right to export and certify halalmeat to Egypt. That is been a
focus of this investigation. And anotherone of the businessmen is a New Jersey
developer, and prosecutors were asking questionsabout him his communications with the senator and
his wife. So, as yousaid, though, this is the second
time in ten years that Senator Menendezhas been charged with bribery and corruption.
(02:45):
But wait, there's more. Menendezalso, according to prosecutors, promised to
undertake official acts in exchange for thebribes that benefited him and his wife.
He's accused of providing sensitive, nonpublic government information about the number of people
serving at the US embassy in Cairoto his wife, who was then his
girlfriend, which she allegedly forwarded toone of the businessmen, who then shared
(03:06):
it with an unnamed Egyptian government official. So, Jim, a lot of
different tentacles here, many years ofinvestigation, but as we said yesterday,
not exactly a shock given the trackrecord. No, it's not. I
believe someone had said that this isthe first time we were witnessing history.
Dear listeners, this is the firsttime a US senator has been indicted twice
(03:29):
on two separate bribery charges. Usuallythey're all connected and related. We had
the previous one in which he managedto beat the rap, but this one
is now completely different, completely separate. And by the way, he beat
that in early January twenty eighteen,and all of these deals came together in
later in twenty eighteen. Did helearn his lesson? No, he did
not. He did not keep hisnose clean. He did not avoid this
(03:52):
look we had. You know,I was really glad we got all of
the gold bars jokes out of oursystem yesterday. If you happen to not
listen to it, go for it. But I also think so first of
all, he's up for re electionnext year and one last time we you
know, no, Democrats have bigadvantages in New Jersey. I think there's
a decent number of Democrats who arelike, please don't run, Please don't
(04:15):
run. You know, let us, you know, let us nominate somebody
else. You can resign, andwe can have the governor appoint somebody and
we'll have some perfectly standard issue Democratwho doesn't have these issues, those with
longtime memories. And in fact,the very first thing I wrote for National
Review was about Bob Toricelli. Andyou know, New Jersey Democrats can always
do the Torisselli maneuver, and whichlong after the deadline for legal deadline for
(04:39):
changing a candidate, New Jersey Democratsjust said, yeah, we think Toriselli
is gonna lose. So they pushedhim out, They brought they nearly resurrected
the decrepit weekend in Bertie's Frank Lautenbergand Lawton you know, Doug Forrester or
the Republican had built his entire campaignon this exceptionally compelling message of I Am
not Bob Toricelli and playing on therather glaring corruption scandal that was engulfing Coriselli.
(05:04):
And unfortunately, Frank Lautenberg was ina position where he could also run
on the theme I Am not BobToriselli. And Forrester, you know,
fell short in two thousand and two, which was otherwise a good year for
Republicans. Would Republicans have a shotin the general election, Look, they
have a much better shot against BobMenendez than they would against a generic Democrat.
So I guess if you're a Republican, you're hoping he decides to stick
(05:27):
it out. Your hope he does. You know, by the way,
everyone who's saying, oh, DonaldTrump has been indicted four times, he's
got to leave the race. There'sno place for him. And you know,
okay, keat, you know,how dare he even run for president?
Never mind? You know you're gonnahear a lot of people insisting innocent
until proven guilty, when they infact have not applied the same standard to
Donald Trump. Look, Menendez,these are allegations, but it's a full
(05:53):
of you know, not just likethey just just vivid, colorful details about
finding the money in all that stuff. And I also feel like, you
know, as we were discussing whattopics to talk about, we expected the
bribery. I don't know if weexpected the did use his influence and power
and breach his official duty in waysthat benefited the government of Egypt. And
(06:14):
you know, the allegation that Menendezprovided sensitive US government information and took other
steps that secretly aided the government ofEgypt, that I think is qualitatively different
from the quote unquote usual bribery we'reused to hearing about in New Jersey.
I think this is a further argumentabout the danger of one party states.
Some people might point to the recentacquittal of Ken Paxton as another example of
(06:36):
that that basically, when one partyis convinced that they're going to win every
general election, no matter who theynominate, no matter what they do in
office, everybody feels in a permissionslip to you know, do whatever you
want, do whatever you can getaway with, because the electorate is never
going to punish you. I wouldlike to see, you know, like,
if Menendez is guilty of these crimes, and it certainly seems like a
(06:57):
compelling case here, then you oughtto be convicted, and you ought to
be, you know, go awayfor a long time. If he you
know, separate from that, I'dlike to see him defeated. And I'd
like to see the people of NewJersey saying to Democrats, you know what
Democrats, First of all, like, if you there are primaries, you
can choose other Democrats. You don'thave to keep sending the same crooks back
to office year after year. Andthe second thing is what crazy thought here?
(07:17):
What if you elected a Republican oncein a while, and at let's
minimum, you give the Republicans anopportunity to be every bit as corrupt as
the Democrats. No to just say, you know what, we take this
stuff seriously. You can't just invokeabortion and scary Donald Trump and all that
stuff and win over and over again. Remember, you know, Christy won
two terms and the Republicans came closeup against Phil Murphy last nime. So
(07:40):
good Republicans wait in New Jersey again. Look, I'm not gonna hold my
breath. It's not looking great,but Robert Menendez is making their job easier,
and he's causing a lot of headacheson the Democratic side of the aisle.
Yeah, well said and well coveredin a lot of different areas.
I suspect Menendez we're tough to forceout because not running again would be some
sort of tacit mission that he's guilty. At least he would think people would
(08:03):
see it that way. So you'reprobably gonna have to beat him in a
primary. But as like you said, you could always pull the Toris selling
maneuver. Frank Lautenberg not available thistime. I would point out, kind
of apart from the details of thecase, this is really bad money management.
First of all, you should makeall your money, honestly, and
I realize until very recently interest rateswere terrible in your savings accounts, But
(08:28):
keeping an envelopes just stashed all aroundthe house, that's not how you're going
to grow your money. You needto either invest it or you need to
put an acount where it's going toget some interest, even just fractions of
pennies on the dollar, given thoseold interest rates. But just leaving around
the house, not only does itlook really bad, because it is really
bad if you've gotten bribe like that, but just just not a good way
(08:48):
to grow the wealth. But youknow, so we take away different lessons.
I guess I will agree, Greg, But I'm just gonna say I
can see, first of all,like you know, Corey, the version
of events from Menendez, the goldbars that were worth four hundred thousand dollars,
we're just a gift from a businessman. So if if people just give
you gifts worth close to a halfmillion dollars, maybe maybe you're really not
(09:09):
all that worried about, you know, your interest rates. Second thing is
is that let's say they work outa deal, Menendez retires and you know,
resigns from the Senate charges are veryminor, he gets probation or a
fine or something like that, guessto turn into some of the gold bars
something like that. You know,I could see him showing up ironically on
Fox News and saying, is goldpart of your portfolio? I think it
(09:31):
should be. Oh fantastic, absolutelyfantastic, all right, speaking of the
Senate. In fact, all threeof our good martinis today relate to the
Senate. Let's move a little bitwest of Jersey to Pennsylvania, where we
will also camp out for a thirdmartini. By the way, there is
a Senate race in Pennsylvania next year, twenty twenty four. Bob Casey Jr.
(09:56):
Is running for a fourth term.Yes, he's already been there eighteen
years after beating Rick Santorum in twothousand and six, but it looks like
the Republicans are going to have aless fractious primary this time. Yesterday,
David McCormick officially launched his latest Senatecampaign. He narrowly lost the primary to
(10:16):
doctor Oz of all people, intwenty twenty two, but now it looks
like he's going to have at leastat the moment, fairly smooth sailing because
Doug Mastriano, who got slaughtered inthe governor's race and toyed with the Senate
race. Not only is he notgetting in, he's actually endorsing McCormick here,
so that might help to clear thefield. He's also got endorsements from
Mike Pompeo and Ted Cruz. SteveDanes, who runs the set National Republican
(10:41):
Senatorial Committee, very excited about this, saying that McCormick's a combat veteran,
he's a job creator, done aremarkable job of unifying the party in Pennsylvania.
Now and his announcement, McCormick says, my opponent was born to run
for political office. I was bornto shake things up, and unlike doctor,
he's a seventh generation Pennsylvanian. Sothat's a little bit better than you
(11:03):
know, not living there at thetime of the election. Really, So,
Jim Casey's going to be a heckof a lot harder to beat than
John Fetterman, I think. Butat least the party seems to be not
in complete disarrayist time. Yeah.I mean, let's recognize that a Senate
race in Pennsylvania in a presidential yearis never an easy task for Republicans Pat
(11:24):
Toomey did it back in twenty sixteen. It's also worth noting Trump won the
state narrowly in twenty sixteen. Bythe way, ironically, they won very
different methods. There were like Pennsylvaniaand Philadelphia suburb areas that voted for Toomey
but not Trump, and there weremore blue collar areas in the western part
of the state that voted for Trumpbut not too me but both guys figured
(11:45):
out a way to get the mostvotes. In the end, Trump is
narrowly trailing Pennsylvania, not by aton, but not you know, not
the numbers you'd like to see forwinning in twenty twenty four. Obviously it's
very early. I do find myselfwondering if you had David McCormick against John
Fetterman in twenty twenty two, wouldthe Republicans have won that race. We
(12:07):
saw the you know, endless likejust the demolishing of Oz for not living
in the state, which, bythe way, considering how you know,
Hillary Clinton ran for Senate in NewYork, like, it really feels very
on and off when the residency requirementsmatter and McCormick owns houses and other places,
and you know, you know,he's got a big house up in
Connecticut, and I'm sure you'll seePennsylvania Democrats try to say, sure,
(12:28):
he's got seven generations and he grewup here, but he's not a real
Pennsylvanian, you know. And youknow, McCormick ran one of the world's
hodge largest headfuns. This guy willhave his own areas of opportunity for Democrats
to attack. But I wonder ifoverall he would have been a better candidate
than Memit Oz. And I thinka lot of people look at Fetterman and
I'm kind of foreshadowing our third Martinihere as a really significant fumble on the
(12:54):
part of Republicans, on the partof Oz, that this was a guy
who literally couldn't campaign for much ofthe year. When he did return to
the campaign trail, it was verybrief, and then up in that debate
it was disastrous and Oz, forwhatever reason, just could not capitalize.
And you kind of wonder if aguy like David McCormick could do that.
Secondly, the idea of Mastriano comingout and not just saying I'm not running,
(13:18):
but endorsing him. He's one ofthe most like pleasant surprises within GOP
party politics and their dynamics. Ina really long time, almost everywhere,
we've managed to have the ugliest,messiest, bloodiest, and most expensive primaries
imaginable very often. We discussed thisa bit on yesterday's episode. The candidate
who is most maga, who ismost pro January sixth, who was most
(13:41):
pro stolen election? They end upwinning the primary, and they end up
blowing what should be winnable races.McCormick is not that guy. McCormick is
already sounding like a general election candidate, and that's probably what you're going to
have to do to beat a guylike Bob Casey, who's again not to
use on my favorite trade. Isnot a whirling dervish of raw political charisma,
(14:03):
but his dad was governor, youknow, very famous family name.
He's got the advantages of incumbency,and it's Pennsylvania, so it's a purple
stated at best. So you putall that together, you know, in
a cycle where it feels like nothingis breaking right for Republicans, things maybe
breaking right in Pennsylvania. Still alot of road ahead, but we will
see how things shake out. Andmy suspicion is i'd almost be surprised if
(14:24):
McCormick does not perform better than Oz. I don't know if it's enough to
win, but I kind of feellike you want your best players on the
field, and McCormick looks like that. I do think McCormick would have done
better than Oz against Fetterman, andI think it's harder this time. I
guess what we learned, Jim,is that Republicans probably ought not to nominate
people who don't live in the stateand aren't Republicans. But if you're previous
(14:50):
president thought he had a pretty goodTV show, I guess that Trump's everything
else, no pun intended. Butlook, I understand the the perceived advantages
of being a celebrity, particularly lastcycle doctor Oz virgual Walker, but in
fact, like you know, theMic Dewines and Ron De Santiss did just
fine. It really doesn't feel likebeing a celebrity is necessarily a huge advantage
(15:16):
in tough general election fights. AndI kind of wonder if that is,
you know, shortsighted or overestimating thevalue of being a recognizable face. All
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coins dot Com slash Martini code Martiniwhen you when you called, don't forget
to mention the code Martini where theywon't know that we sent you. All
right, Jim onto good Senate Martininumber three. And it's not often that
you hear leadership publicly disagreeing with eachother. And this is not over a
(17:02):
major policy issue, but it isover an issue. It's getting a tremendous
amount of attention. Last weekend,the Senate Democratic Leader, the Majority leader,
Chuck Schumer saying that senators no longerhave a dress code. You can
wear whatever you want onto the Senatefloor. And then I guess it was
Wednesday. John Fetterman presided over theSenate in his shortsleeve shirt and shorts.
Well. Most Republicans have officially protestedthat they don't like it. They want
(17:26):
the old dress code to return.Rick Scott circulated a petition signed by forty
six different senators on the Republican side. The only ones that did not sign
it Mike Brawn of Indiana, who'salready got to foot out the door running
for governor Katie Britt of Alabama,who's actually really good friends with John Fetterman
and Josh Holley of Missouri, andI don't know why he would not sign
it. But also, and mostsignificantly, Dick Durban, the number two
(17:49):
Democrat in the Senate, also pushingto reverse Schumer's unilateral decision. He was
on the Serious XM show hosted bySteve Scully of c SPAN Fame call the
Briefing, and he says, quote, I think we need to have standards
when it comes to what we're wearingon the floor of the Senate, and
we're in the process of discussing thatright now as to what those standards will
be, says he can't understand whatSchumer was thinking. Joe Manchin also pushing
(18:14):
legislation to reverse the decision and goback to the old dress code. So,
Jim, whenever you get people fromyour own party pushing back on you
publicly like that makes you think somethingmight actually happen. So what do you
think of all this? Yeah,I feel like this has hit a chord
in a way that Schumer probably didnot expect You've seen not just a lot
(18:36):
of members of Congress. I thinkyou know, if not every columns,
then a lot of people have writtenabout this. The Washington Post editorial board
weighed in and said this is nota good idea. You should meant to
maintain decorum. Wearing a suit isnot too much to ask, As listeners
know, I write columns for thePost, had no say in that editorial,
but I'm glad they said that.And before we go any further,
(18:56):
I should note I have heard theargument from some people, but the reason
Fetterman doesn't like to wear a suitis because of part of the lingering after
effects of his stroke, because hedoesn't have the fine motor control that he's
used to having, and things likebuttons and zippers and shoelaces and a belt
buckle can be more challenging than theywould be before the stroke. If that's
(19:18):
the case, then I think allof us would look at this pretty differently,
and we'd feel great sympathy. Nowyou and I were you're on Twitter
or pointing out John McCain had hadgreat difficulty dressing himself, Bob Dole had
great daniel in away. There area lot of veterans who had wounds and
who still managed to put on asuit. But if this was genuinely a
matter of like physical pain or discomfortor something like that, I think we'd
(19:41):
look at it all, you know, somewhat differently. I would point out
Fetterman has not said this. Vetterman, I mean, this is possible.
This is the case. And Vetterman, for one reason or another, doesn't
want to admit it, doesn't wantto discuss this, and you know,
you hate to see anybody's suffering likethat. On the other hand, but
he's acting like this is a matterof his personal comfort and how style and
(20:02):
how he wants to dress himself,which I think. I think we can
only evaluate it on the measures thatby the criteria he's put out there.
And the general response has been anybodywho's objecting to this is silly. Anybody
who's objecting to this is being ridiculous. And I don't think people feel that
way. And when you say,you know, I really think there should
be some standards of decorum and formalityto being on the floor of the US
(20:27):
Senate, and Fetterman says, no, you're being silly. I think people
react pretty negatively to this, andI think you're seeing this in this you
know, gentle but definitely distinct pushbackfrom some of his colleagues. I think
they can recognize Fetterman by refusing tothis. Fetterman is kind of saying this
job is not worth wearing a suitfor. And first of all, I
(20:48):
think there are a bunch of menin the Senate, including Democratic men in
the Senate, who say, yesit is, and that if we want
to be respected by the public,if we want to say we are something
important, we are something to betreated. If not with reverence, there
was some sort of recognition of itsauthority and its significance, then you have
to dress the part, you haveto act the part. This is again,
(21:10):
as I've discussed, this is nota reality show, and I think
Fetterman has kind of brought like ifyou want to, you know, rip
into the you know, Lauren Bobert'sand Marjorie Taylor Green. Sure, there
are a bunch of people on theRepublican side who seem to be playing that
same attitude of wanting to be areality show star. But Fetterman makes their
job more complicated, and part ofit is because it wasn't you know.
It's one thing to be on thecampaign trail and dress very casually. It's
(21:33):
another thing to be, you know, both in the Senate in the halls
and at committee hearings, but thenalso on the floor of the Senate and
to dress the way he does theother thing. Greg and I almost hesitate
to mention this, but I justkind of ask, what's with the mustache?
Said he lost a bet or something. Botanists are identify what caterpillar is
(21:56):
crossing, is crawling across his lip. I should not make I don't want
to make fun of anybody's appearance andall that stuff, but he does feel
like you can you can insert whatever. Look every guy with a mustache thinks
they're gonna look like Tom Selleck andMagnan Pi almost no. The only person
who pulls that off is Tom Selleck, right, you know. And it
just it's almost like he's trying tolook as bizarre as possible. It's a
(22:19):
very you know, odd one.And I go back and forth, like
again, you know, you shouldn'tmake fun of people for their appearance.
They can't really control it in mostof the case. On the other hand,
appearances matter in life. And Ikind of feel like, you know,
you can either rage against it,you know, or you can just
kind of accept it. You cantry to make the best of what you've
got there. And generally men lookmore respectable and respectful and more appropriate for
(22:45):
conditions like this, i e.Governing the country when they're wearing a suit,
you're at a barbecue campaign event,that's fine, dress completely different.
Dress thereswever you want, but inthe chamber you probably should dress a little
more formally. And the other Thething about like whether this is a consequence
of difficulties with the stroke or somethinglike that. It looks like he's wearing
(23:07):
generally short sleeved button down shirts,which indicates you can handle buttons, right,
I know, it looks like andagain I'm not inspecting terribly closely,
he's wearing shorts shorts that were youknow, then he's not wearing like sweatshirt
shorts. He's wearing you know,shirts that have a you know, belt
buckle and stop. So it doesseem like he can handle buttons and belts.
Maybe it's a great difficulty. Idon't I don't know what the situation
(23:29):
is, but I'm gonna observe ifyou can wear button down collared shirts and
pants. Then you could wear atminimum, like you know, white white
or or appropriate office casual friday attirestuff and khakis or dress pants, right,
you know, and also like notsneakers. And none of this seems
unreasonably high. If you know,if Sheuber looked at this and said,
(23:52):
you know what, We're gonna havecasual Fridays and people don't have to wear
ties, okay, I don't thinkthis would have had caused this huge blow.
It's that they're announcing it, thatthey're clearly announcing it in response to
his refusal to wear a suit,the vague allusion that maybe this is tied
to the stroke or to the depressiontreatment or something like that without ever coming
out and saying it, coupled withthe fact of he dresses completely differently and
(24:18):
completely inappropriately than any compared to everyother senator. That's a good point,
and you're right, there has notbeen any definitive statement that he's physically limited
to put on a suit. It'sdon't believe that he doesn't like them.
So if he's hiding that, comeout and say it, and you can
perhaps have a discussion about it.If it's just that he doesn't want to
do it. That's just the hideof laziness. So anyway, Jim,
(24:41):
time for the weekend. Good luckto the Jets if they're playing. I
have no idea who the Bears play. They're a complete dumpster fire at this
point, but I'll figure it outby Sunday. If they actually have a
game. So, oh, theyplay the Chiefs, I'm sure that'll go
well. Oh yeah, you knowwhat. The best thing you go with
the lowers of expectations. If anythinggoes right, that's a win. Don't
have a defensive coordinator quarterbacks fighting withhis coaches. It's all great, all
great, Everything's gonna be fine.Jim Garretty, National Review. I'm Greg
(25:04):
Columbus of Radio America. Thanks somuch for being with us today. Please
subscribe to the podcast if you don'talready, and tell some friends about us
as well. Thanks also for yourfive star ratings and your kind reviews.
Please keep thus coming. Get uson your home devices. All you have
to say is play three Martini Lunchpodcast. Follow us on Axis at Jim
Garretty. I'm at Dateline Underscore DC. Have a great weekend. Join us
(25:25):
again on Monday for the next threemartini lunch
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