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: Menendez's Blooper In Attacking McGreevey

: New York Times

: By Josh Benson

: On Politics
: New Jersey Section
: August 29, 2004

: All politics may be local, but how local is too local?

: Representative Robert Menendez, the articulate and accomplished national politician, is in good shape.

: He has been voted by his Democratic peers as caucus chair and is the third-ranking Democrat in the House, putting him in line for a powerful leadership position should his party regain the majority. He has leveraged his reputation as one of the most business-friendly Democrats in Congress to help him build a formidable campaign war chest.

: He has also become a leading Democratic voice on Hispanic issues and will play a key role during the Republican National Convention this week in rebutting G.O.P. overtures to an increasingly powerful Latino voting bloc.

: But despite registering these considerable successes by the age of 50, Mr. Menendez does not seem content with his role in Washington. To an extent that many of his peers find somewhat extraordinary, Mr. Menendez likes to be a player and a direct participant - in local Democratic politics. As Tom Ochs, a Washington-based Democratic consultant, puts it, "He's a very good politician nationally, but I can hardly think of any congressmen or senators who are involved in local stuff to the extent he is."

: This brings us to the other Robert Menendez, the personally ambitious Hudson County power broker, who has had a somewhat worse time of it lately. Mr. Menendez has had nothing but problems since his heavy-handed attempt to insert himself into the scramble for power that followed Governor McGreevey's surprise resignation announcement.

: The congressman, who wants to be a senator, thought he saw an opportunity to fulfill that ambition. The plan was to pressure Mr. McGreevey to quit immediately, in turn allowing Mr. Menendez's close ally, Senator Jon S. Corzine, to become governor in a special election - and to anoint Mr. Menendez as his replacement in the United States Senate.

: Mr. Menendez's bid to depose the governor, conceived of in concert with powerful political bosses like George Norcross of Camden and John Lynch of Middlesex, failed in spectacular fashion.

: Instead of forcing Mr. McGreevey from office, the congressman and his temporary allies provided the governor with a convenient enemy to rally against. The coup plotters quickly found themselves labeled political "warlords" by quick-spinning McGreevey supporters, and the governor himself now looks all but certain to remain in office right up until his originally announced date of resignation on Nov. 15.

: The exchange was particularly damaging for Mr. Menendez. Not only was he forced to retreat from his position, but in the process of his dispute with a ruthless and suddenly reckless McGreevey camp, some nasty rumors about the congressman's private life mysteriously found their way into the press.

: It isn't clear what effect the congressman's latest venture into New Jersey's pohtical sectarianism will have on his long-held ambitions for a promotion to the upper house in Washington. According to the version of events in the Menendez camp, the damage should be minimal. There was never really a pohtical showdown with the governor to back off from, they say. Rather, Mr. Menendez simply feared that his party could be damaged in next year's elections if Mr. McGreevey lingered too long. They also say that he decided after a private meeting that the governor had no intention of leaving and that the most constructive course of action remaining was to rally behind him.

: "There won't be any long-term effect," asserted one Democrat closely allied with Mr. Menendez.

: But another, more popular school of thought in state Democratic circles says that Mr. Menendez made a transparent power play and lost and that he has suffered a potentially serious blow as a result.

: For one thing, his high-profile involvement in the sloppy tussle over the spoils of the McGreevey era is certainly a setback to his constant efforts to define himself as an esteemed national legislator rather than as a back-room broker from Hudson County. Of course, his image outside the environs of his congressional district wouldn't necessarily be cause for concern if Mr. Menendez were content to rise through the ranks of national politics as a mere member of the House.

: Perhaps the greater danger for Mr. Menendez, then, is that his direct involvement in the divisive intraparty struggle over the McGreevey affair will make it difficult for him to gain the sort of broad institutional support he will need for any future statewide endeavor - like running for an open Senate seat.

: "I know that Bob Menendez has the capability at any time of shifting to intelhgent discussion of pohcy and national issues," said David Rebovich, managing director of the Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University. "And then there's nonsense like this, which isn't even the first time that Menendez's forays into the nitty-gritty of New Jersey politics have backfired. It would probably be wise for him, and for his career, to pull back and focus again on national issues and how they impact on New Jersey."

: As Mr. Menendez helps deliver the Democratic response during the Republican convention this week, he may be keeping that in mind.

: Josh Benson is a freelance writer based in Trenton.


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