After Indictment, Menendez Is Replaced As Top Dem On Foreign Relations Panel

[DonViejo]

Source: TPM

It's official: New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez is stepping aside from his perch as the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee as he battles a federal indictment on corruption and bribery charges. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) will take over the position of ranking member, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's (D-NV) office announced Thursday, one day after the indictment.

The shift could be good news for President Barack Obama's efforts to strike an agreement with Iran aimed at stopping the country from building a nuclear weapon. Menendez was a leading Democratic skeptic of a potential deal, having partnered with Republicans to sponsor legislation that would restrict the White House's room to negotiate a deal to lift economic sanctions on Iran without congressional oversight.

The move to replace Menendez as ranking member came on the same day that top U.S. and Iranian negotiators announced that they had achieved a framework for an agreement and hoped to finalize it in the next three months.

The New Jersey Democrat maintained his innocence and vowed to stay in office.

-snip-

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ben-cardin-replaces-bob-menendez-foreign-relations-committee

[pscot]

1. Conservatives are heart broken

They don't get to whine about Democrats condoning sleaze.

[DonViejo]

5. Their whining now is, Obama has set up Menendez so he cannot block the Iran deal. eom

[pscot]

9. That's a loser

any way you look at it.

[geek tragedy]

2. Cardin isn't any better than Menendez--he's very neocon and Bomb Bomb Iran.

One of those "progressive on everything but the Mideast" types

[bemildred]

3. Excellent. nt

[forest444]

4. Here's why this matters:

Because Menéndez is the sole Senate Democrat controlled by what's arguably the world's most vile and obscene banker, Cayman Islands-based vulture fund NML Capital ringleader Paul Singer.

This is the same Paul Singer that has bilked taxpayers out of $12 billion in TARP funds, while liquidating Delphi Automotive and Caesar's Entertainment and tens of thousands of good jobs. Singer has also become one of the top funders of almost every teahadist cause you can imagine from the GOP itself on down.

Despite facilitating massive tax evasion and money laundering from his vulture fund in the Caymans, Singer enjoys full access to U.S. courts, and has, as many know, been using this access to hold bondholders money hostage in the Argentine case (the one in which he bought bonds for $48 million, but is now demanding $900 million despite already collecting on the CDS insurance on same). Courts in Europe and the world's 40 trillion-dollar soveriegn bonds market have noticed, and have already quietly moved their bond issuances out of New York (where Singer's parrot, Judge Thomas Greasa, has jurisdiction).


Singer controls numerous Republicans in both the House and Senate, but his stooge in the Democratic side was always the same one: Bob Menéndez.

So good riddance, Bob. I'm sure the Santo Domingo brothels will miss you.

[hopeforchange2008]

6. If he were a republican, they'd put him in charge of the ethics committee /eom

[monmouth4]

7. It would appear Menendez, Bibi and Boehner are having a bad day. I'm glad...n/t

[Dont call me Shirley]

8. Who did he piss off?

[forest444]

10. His owner,

Paul Singer.

Singer has been using Menéndez in hopes of stringing other Senate Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee along in his bid to cheat Argentine bondholders out of a billion dollars (for bonds Singer purchased from resellers for $48 million). He has already per$uaded a Wall Street judge, the senile Thomas Greasa, to hold other bondholders' payments hostage until he gets his demands - putting Argentina in the unprecedented position of having to sue in order to be allowed to pay creditors (the bondholders). The Singer vulture fund in this dispute, NML Capital, has already received billions in TARP funds and is based out of the Caymans, through which they facilitate billions in additional tax evasion - including the Romneys (and almost certainly Menéndez as well).

Menéndez, alas, was thoroughly unsuccessful. All the more so after Singer forced Caesar's Entertainment to fold using similar tactics (Atlantic City may soon declare bankruptcy as a result, costing taxpayers billions more). Unacceptable, to a rotten child like Singer.

Too much is being made of this Dr. Melgen. Just wait until word leaks out of any secret Cayman accounts being managed for Menéndez by his real owner, Paul Singer.

[Dont call me Shirley]

11. Dint Argentina already refuse to pay back Mr Vulture? Too bad a Dem was associated with this.

[forest444]

12. Exactly.

They couldn't meet his demands even if they wanted to because of the RUFO clause that mandates that any such settlements must be likewise extended to all restructured bondholders - and because Singer demanded a 1600%+ return, the terms were simply impossible. Singer knew this, of course, but was hoping to push Argentina into default in order to collect on CDS insurance.

Argentina did in fact offer him the same deal they offered the other restructured bondholders, which for Singer would have still meant something like a 200% return (in just 6 years) since he bought his Argentine bonds for 20 cents on the dollar at the depth of the 2008 global panic. But why accept less than 1600% when you have a senile Wall Street judge (who unfortunately has jurisdiction, but only over Argentina's New York Law bonds) and several U.S. congressmen and senators in your pocket, right?

And Señor Menéndez was indeed the only Democrat among them.

Good riddance, Bob. Don't drop the soap.

[Dont call me Shirley]

13. Why aren't the gops involved indicted then?

[forest444]

14. It's a question of usefulness (or lack thereof)

Menéndez had become thoroughly useless to someone like Singer: he couldn't carry much water for him in the Argentine heist (least of all now that Senate Dems are in the minority), and as a Democrat -albeit a centrist one- he can't be counted on for Singer's many teahadist plans. Besides which, he knows too much.

The timing of this, then, is pretty close to perfect from Singer's point of view - all the more so since it now befalls Crisco to appoint a successor. Whether Singer and Dr. Melgen know each other, we'll probably never know. They do have this much in common: a lot of time spent in the Caribbean.

Singer does still have two other Cuban exile extremists, Rubio and Ros-Lehtinen, in his pocket - not to mention Judge Greasa, who'sobviously very happy with his new ranch in Montana (worth millions).