Not Counting Ben Nelson, Could The Democrats Have Found A Worse DSCC Chair Than Robert Menendez?

A deadly cancer in our country

Most people outside of New Jersey (and Cuba) first heard of Senator Robert Menendez when he achieved the impossible. He presided over the abject loss of what was arguably the safest Democratic seat in the U.S. Senate. His first task as the new head of the DSCC was to hold Kennedy's Massachusetts Senate seat. Thanks to Menendez' ineptness and clear lameness, the very same voters who had given Obama a 62-38% win over McCain handed the GOP veto power over every single nomination and every piece of legislation. Menendez can't be expected to should 100% of the blame, of course, but he is the only person whose charge is specifically holding onto Democratic Senate seats.

After that stunning debut, he then involved himself-- against party rules-- in the Democratic primary in the state with the most vulnerable Republican incumbent, North Carolina's Richard Burr. Not happy that the state's popular Secretary of State, Elaine Marshall-- a tad too progressive, a tad too harsh on Wall Street banksters, and a tad too... well unmale for a pig like Menendez (after all North Carolina already has a woman senator; they're not ready for two)-- the clueless New Jersey thug butted in and offered to bankroll an unknown empty suit to save the nomination from falling into Marshall's hands. Even after spending a small fortune on pushing his candidate and failing miserably in the first round, he insisted on a pointless, expensive charade of a runoff that he lost again-- by a huge margin, having wasted even more money that should have been invested into defining Burr.

Many Democrats are grumbling that if the former ward healer and corrupt boss of Hudson County had been paying attention, DeMint would never have gotten away with inserting Alvin Greene as his "opponent" in the South Carolina race. But Menendez was busy elsewhere-- working on his hideous pet project: toppling the Cuban government. Few Democrats realize that Menendez is the most toxic obstacle in the normalization of relations between the U.S. and Cuba. His obsession with inflicting more pain on the Cuban people is nothing short of psychotic and is more important to him than anything else in his miserable, worthless existence.

Yesterday when the House Agriculture Committee voted to ease restrictions on travel and commerce between the U.S. and Cuba, Menendez, hysterical, dropped everything and went on the warpath. In committee only 4 Republicans supported the bill, which passed 25-20 and must now go through further legislative hurdles. Menendez sides with the GOP cold warriors.

Proponents of the bill said it would be a major boost for American farmers. The bill, which would allow American commodities to be sold directly to Cuba and allow some direct financial transactions with Cuban banks, is supported by several business and farming groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Farmers Union.

“This is a great opportunity to expand trade,” said Representative Collin C. Peterson, Democrat of Minnesota and the chairman of the committee. He added that American travel to Cuba would “show the Cuban people how great democracy can be.”

Menendez isn't shy about reminding Democrats of the power he has over their head as DSCC chair. He should have been removed after Massachusetts, after North Carolina, after South Carolina. Now, with him single-mindedly opposed to his own party on this, it is imperative that the DSCC find a more credible and capable leader.

"I oppose and will filibuster any attempt to pass the bill in the Senate," he thundered, still the hackish big city boss, ready to deploy every anti-Cuba propaganda trick left over from the Cold War. "The big corporate interests behind this bill couldn’t care less about whether the Cuban people are free or not-- they only care about padding their profits by opening up a new market. Repression is repression and dictatorships are dictatorships, no matter where they are located or whether you want to use their resorts."