Red flags all over Menendez private charter flight story

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) should be in huge trouble. Last week, I called for his immediate resignation not due to the ongoing Dominican Republic underage prostitute allegations, rather is $60,000 late “payment” to a political friend and donor for two chartered jet flights to the island.

During a CNN interview yesterday, Menendez said he paid for the two flights aboard the private jet once he found out about the “oversight.” Another New Jersey Republican made a complaint to the Senate’s Ethics Committee, and as soon as the senator found out about the “oversight” he paid the bill. It’s funny how ethic reviews and FBI investigations can bring these bill-paying mistakes to light.

To put this in perspective, Menendez makes $174,000 per year as a United States Senator before taxes. Let’s say his average state and federal tax rate totals 35 percent (I’m using a low estimate). That means Menendez wrote a check for more than one-half of his total net income for two private jet flights.

How about Menendez’s net worth? OpenSecrets.org lists his net worth at between $317,000 and $680,000, with an average estimated current net worth of about $500,000. That means Menendez wrote a personal reimbursement check estimated to be about 12 percent of is total net worth. Somewhere between 9 percent and 20 percent is the true figure.

This is amazing to me! This guy is dirty, we all know it. May I suggest Menendez have his spokesperson come out and announce the good senator has invoked the Anthony Weiner / Patrick Kennedy / Jessie Jackson Jr. card and checked himself in for treatment somewhere?

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

7 Comments

  1. Dimsdale on February 5, 2013 at 9:51 am

    Menendez is so dirty that even the liberal media is starting to question him!
    ?
    All he needs now is the presidential kiss of death, with ?bama saying that “he has full confidence in Sen. Menendez”.



  2. ricbee on February 5, 2013 at 4:44 pm

    I’d like to see him fry but he will probably skate as is the usual fate of an Obama mate.



  3. JBS on February 5, 2013 at 6:04 pm

    Political corruption is not new. That he hangs out with a tax scofflaw is outrageous. Propriety (LOL, this guy’s a Democrat!) says he should not be consorting with someone who owes the IRS $11 million! How can someone (Meglen) who owes that much to the gub’mint donate $700,000 to a Democrat Super Pac? Is that in exchange for the port security contract in the Dominican that he pushed which would benefit Melgen.
    And, then there’s the child prostitute question . . . sick!
    Of course, all of this could be the result of rabid right-wing bloggers looking to make Menendez resign. The allegations are much like the “when did you stop beating your wife” trap.
    In this case, I have to ask: Who benefits?
    ?



  4. Lynn on February 5, 2013 at 6:10 pm

    Well Harry Reid has full confidence that Menendez has done nothing wrong. There will be an ethic investigation. Well that puts my mind to rest.



  5. Plainvillian on February 5, 2013 at 6:24 pm

    Now, now,now…..let’s not forget what Frank and Jesse James taught us: A? little robbin’ and killin’ don’t make a boy all bad.
    Seriously, isn’t Menendez just one more example of the ethical desert that is our national political scene?? Isn’t it a sad but true reflection of the culture we have become when we return the same miscreants to Washington (and Hartford)? ? What will our future be??



  6. SeeingRed on February 6, 2013 at 9:21 am

    I’d love to see him hang for this, but doubt he’ll be sensured by the Ethics Committee.? If the FBI doesn’t turn something up in the good Dr.’s records, or the 16 year-olds in the DR suddenly disappear or change thier stories,?the Great?Man?will be on his way and looking for the next youngster to fondle, the next billionaire to hitch a ride with.?
    American Government has jumped the shark.



  7. DanRyanGalt on February 8, 2013 at 11:43 am

    Aside from the sleaze factor here, how can the good Senator’s net worth at this stage in his life be only between $317,000 and $680,000? Granted, that is a considerable amount of money for most of we peasants, but it seems a little low for some one of his “stature” (term used very loosely).
    Either he doesn’t manage his money very well or he manages it VERY well and has hidden assets.



square-bob-menendez

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