Hispanic Group Issues Letter of Support to Senator Bob Menendez

Bob Menendez

Senator Bob Menendez has been a loyal supporter of maintaining a hardline policy against Communist Cuba. Let’s not forget that the allegations of wrongdoing by the senator are just that – allegations. Under the judicial system in the United States, you are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty. This is a fundamental concept that was first used in the Bill of Rights to ensure that all citizens receive the due process of the law protections. So, let’s not jump the gun and convict the senator before the investigations have been completed.

 
Management Guru John Maxwell indicated in his book “The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork” that “one is too small a number to achieve greatness.” With 1,785,547 Cuban Americans living in the United States, according to the latest statistics from the 2010 Census, it is essential that they form coalitions with other groups in the U.S. population to make things happen in the political arena.
Thus, I want to express my gratitude to the National Puerto Rican Coalition for issuing a strong letter of support to Senator Bob Menendez while weathering the latest storm.

To view the letter of support, click on http://myemail.constantcontact.com/NPRC-DEFENDS-SENATOR-MENENDEZ-FROM-UNPROVEN-ALLEGATION.html?soid=1103746915512&aid=f3JhZ1p1dnk

32 thoughts on “Hispanic Group Issues Letter of Support to Senator Bob Menendez”

    • Heh. You know what the four words are…

      BTW, Ray, I could care less what his stand on Cuba is. His other votes — designed to FUCK OVER American citizens — have been leftist and progressive. I DO NOT have the “utmost respect” for someone who wants to screw me and family by voting for one onerous bill after another after another. He’s a Democrat. End of discussion.

  1. I have nothing but the utmost respect for Menendez. I may not agree with everything that he stands for, but when it comes to Cuba, he has shown unwavering conviction and bravery. I say bravery, because he has gone against his own party, and against his colleagues–the liberal democrats–and their attempts to lift the embargo and to perpetuate the tyranny. That takes CONVICTION. Surely, Menendez is aware that being anti-castro in the USA is not easy, especially if one is part of a group that is not exactly shy about defending castro. As such, Menendez has shown more bravery than our Republican representatives, since their party colleagues are more likely to support them, or at the very least, be indifferent to their anticastroism.

    We Cuban-Americans should take this as a lesson. Fox News and the Republicans have been fanning this news and trying to screw up Menendez. Enemies make strange bed fellows, huh? All of this probably started with the regime, then it went to the leftist blogs and now the so-called conservatives at Fox New and Republicans are running with the story and fanning it for all that its worth.

  2. How can someone be so ‘Anti-Castro/anti-communist’ and, not only belong to the Democrat party, but be an active supporter and leading figure of their policies??? The guy’s not genuine. I feel that his ‘Cuba stand’ does not derive from any personal ‘historical’ experience regarding Cuba (he was born in NYC in 1954), rather, it’s bases solely on the original stands he took to get elected in NJ’s 13th Congressional District (the highest concentration of Cubans outside of FL).

  3. You cannot both be against Castro’s policies, and promote Socialist policies as a member of the US Congress without coming across as a total hypocrite.

    “All politics are local” indeed.

    Union City = votes and cash.

    Judicial nominees must uphold Roe v. Wade. (Sep 2006)
    Kean voted against stem-cell research six times; I didn’t. (Sep 2006)
    I support stem cell research 100%. (Sep 2006)
    Voted NO on restricting UN funding for population control policies. (Mar 2009)
    Voted NO on defining unborn child as eligible for SCHIP. (Mar 2008)
    Voted NO on prohibiting minors crossing state lines for abortion. (Mar 2008)
    Voted NO on barring HHS grants to organizations that perform abortions. (Oct 2007)
    Voted YES on expanding research to more embryonic stem cell lines. (Apr 2007)
    Voted NO on notifying parents of minors who get out-of-state abortions. (Jul 2006)
    Voted YES on allowing human embryonic stem cell research. (May 2005)
    Voted NO on restricting interstate transport of minors to get abortions. (Apr 2005)
    Voted NO on banning partial-birth abortion except to save mother’s life. (Oct 2003)
    Voted NO on forbidding human cloning for reproduction & medical research. (Feb 2003)
    Voted NO on funding for health providers who don’t provide abortion info. (Sep 2002)
    Voted NO on banning Family Planning funding in US aid abroad. (May 2001)
    Voted NO on federal crime to harm fetus while committing other crimes. (Apr 2001)
    Voted NO on banning partial-birth abortions. (Apr 2000)
    Voted NO on barring transporting minors to get an abortion. (Jun 1999)
    Rated 100% by NARAL, indicating a pro-choice voting record. (Dec 2003)
    Sponsored bill for emergency contraception for rape victims. (Sep 2006)
    Rated 0% by the NRLC, indicating a pro-choice stance. (Dec 2006)
    Provide emergency contraception at military facilities. (Apr 2007)
    Let military perform abortions in cases of rape or incest. (Jun 2011)
    Require pharmacies to fulfill contraceptive prescriptions. (Jul 2011)
    Ensure access to and funding for contraception. (Feb 2007)
    Focus on preventing pregnancy, plus emergency contraception. (Jan 2009)
    Emergency contraception at all military health facilities. (Dec 2009)

    Rated 100% by NARAL, indicating a pro-choice voting record.
    Rated 88% by the HRC, indicating a pro-gay-rights stance.
    Rated 86% by UFCW, indicating an anti-management/pro-labor record.
    Rated 15% by the Christian Coalition: an anti-Family-Value voting record.
    Rated F by the NRA, indicating a pro-gun control voting record.
    Rated 0% by USBC, indicating an open-border stance.
    Rated 93% by the AFL-CIO, indicating a pro-union voting record.
    Rated 100% by the CTJ, indicating support of progressive taxation.

  4. Bull’s eye. This man is a liberal who happens to be Cuban and elected from a district where certain stances will keep you in office. If he’s truly sincere about his anti-regime convictions, fine — lo feo no quita lo valiente. But the fact is that he is left of center on important issues, and frankly, I am tired of all the accolades showered on him over the years just because he’s pro-exile and anti-cASStro. If the allegations against him are true, he should be prosecuted like you or I would be. And if you think about it, the way we’re going, neither the Cubans nor any other oppressed persons will have a place to which they can flee if we continue with people like this guy in office.

  5. New Jersey no longer has such a large Cuban exile community. Bob got his start in Union City/West New York. At one time, these twin cities were overwhelmingly Cuban American. Today, they are like Little Havana–heavily Central and South American. What you have there is a small Cuban presence that is spread out all over the state: highly assimilated Cuban Americans in different cities of NJ and recently arrived CUBANOIDS that want nothing more than to lift the embargo, so that they can run back to Cuba as soon as they arrive here. In other words, Bob Menendez does not owe his election to Cuban Americans. He could become a lift-the-embargo, let’s engage castro type and still be elected rather easily. In fact, his Cuba stance probably costs him votes. What he does vis-a-vis Cuba, he does totally out of conviction, not out of some ulterior motive.

    The late Jorge Mas Canosa knew that it was good not to put all of your eggs in one basket and that’s why he used to make allies across party lines. Liberal Democrat, Senator Torricelli sponsored the first Cuba embargo bill and became a staunch ally of Cuban exiles. By the same token, some of the worst enemies we have today are Republicans that are salivating at the thought of doing business with castro, and the most ultra conservative Republican pundit I can think of, Patrick Buchanan, has gone on record criticizing exiles [whom he seems to hate–he paints all Hispanics with the same bush stroke and sees us as nothing more than LATEENOS] and favoring relations with Cuba.

    To me Cuba will always be the overriding factor in my political life, not abortion, illegal immigration, etc…., to others it is not that say–perhaps you folks have become American than I. In any case, it’s just a matter of personal opinion and I’m not going to convince anyone, so let’s just agree to disagree on this one.

    • Ray, we all care about Cuba. But we live here. What good does it do to free Cuba when two-faced politicians like Menendez do their level best to turn this country into a bigger version of Cuba?

      Balls. Principles.

  6. Rayarena,
    Patrick Buchanan is no conservative. He almost never speaks for me. I am an ultra right wing conservative and I can’t think of too many things Buchanan has espoused that match my opinions. He is an isolationist, often anti our support of Israel, wants no free trade and many of the things he touts are anathema to most conservatives. Listen to what he says and you will see what I mean. He gives conservatism a bad name.
    Stop calling him a conservative of any kind.

  7. “What he does vis-a-vis Cuba, he does totally out of conviction, not out of some ulterior motive.”

    That’s the puzzling aspect of Menendez’s politics.

    He opposes Cuba while simultaneously working at making the US more Cuba-like.

    How does that make any sense?

    Like you, I am one to whom Cuba is an overriding factor in my politics, so my political convictions reject any politician in the US whose body politico indicates a support of socialist economical policies, support for the idea of increased progressive taxation (wealth redistribution), socialized medicine, etc.

    Like Mendendez, DWS is “right” on the issue of Cuba, yet she is the poster child for the sorts of politics that made my parents (all of our parents) leave the island to begin with; my personal stance on Cuba hasn’t changed an inch since the day we left the island so I can’t support her. Since DWS is local politics to me, I am more stridently anti-her than I am anti-Mendendez.

    So because I am still Cuban at heart, I have become so much more “American” in the breadth of my political ideology, giving at least as much weight to issues like abortion, illegal immigration that impact the immediacy of my current surroundings, as I do to the support of freedom for Cuba.

    When it’s all said and done, to me becoming American has meant being a free Cuban, and being a free Cuban means opposing Socialism at any level, any place. Menendez supports way too many Socialist policies for me to see him as anything other than a Socialist politician.

  8. From the letter:

    “Let’s not forget that the allegations of wrongdoing by the senator are just that – allegations.”

    He took the plane rides in 2010, and paid for them in 2013, well after the story broke.

    That’s not an allegation, that’s a fact.

    “Under the judicial system in the United States, you are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty. This is a fundamental concept that was first used in the Bill of Rights to ensure that all citizens receive the due process of the law protections.”

    As liberals are well aware, the Bill of Rights has no power to place constraints the Court of Public Opinion. Politicians know that, so they should behave accordingly.

    The allegations about encounters with prostitutes are just that…allegations, but the plane rides, and the appearance of quid pro quo are real

  9. “We all care about Cuba. But we live here. What good does it do to free Cuba when two-faced politicians like Menendez do their level best to turn this country into a bigger version of Cuba?”

    “That’s the puzzling aspect of Menendez’s politics. He opposes Cuba while simultaneously working at making the US more Cuba-like.”

    Ditto to both pitbull and Luis.

    My take is that with Kerry and Hagel in team Obama there will be a definitive push for reestablishing full diplomatic relations with the Castro tyranny regardless of the dismal human rights record existing in the island.

    When that happens I guarantee you that Senator Menendez won’t denounce Obama and leave the Democratic party in an act of protest.

    I rest my case…

  10. Menendez, like practically all politicians, is primarily after getting elected, re-elected, and rising or going as far as possible, which requires staying in office as long as possible. In NJ, it’s much more “practical” to be a Dem, and if you need the NJ Cuban vote, you have to take a strongly anti-Castro position. Since he goes against the Dem grain on Cuba, he has to compensate by being an otherwise orthodox liberal Dem. This is called pragmatic compromise by some and cynical calculation by others. Either way, it’s classic political behavior, and Menendez is absolutely a politician. Yes, it’s good to have a firm pro-Cuba voice on the Dem side, and the more influential the better, but it remains unseemly and undignified (una falta de decoro, as Martí would say) for a Cuban to belong to the party of JFK, Carter, Clinton and Obama. This does not mean a Cuban must be a Republican, especially these days, but one should have certain standards, particularly if one identifies as Cuban. Just my two cents (or five).

  11. First of all, many of us have forgotten that back in the day, the majority of New Jersey/New York Cuban Americans were Democrats. That does not excuse Menendez remaining in the party, but it’s not exactly unheard of amongst Cuban Americans who live up North.

    Secondly, I wonder what would happen if we judge Jeff Flake by the same standards people here are judging Menendez? Everyone on this threat has excoriated Jeff Flake for his Cuba stance even though he is quite conservative in other areas. Flake has been characterized as a deficit hawk who holds firm to conservative fiscal principles. Yet no one here is willing to take that into consideration when judging the man and look only at his Cuba policy.

    Everyone is free to think of Menendez what they like, but I find it a bit hypocritical to totally disregard the great work he’s done for the Cuba cause because of his party affiliation while at the same time ignoring the conservative work of Jeff Flake and burying him for his Cuba stance.

    You can’t have it both ways.

  12. It’s not personal, it’s strictly business: Menendez is a progressive pretending to be conservative on Cuba; Flake is progressive on Cuba and pretends to be a conservative on other issues.

    So who exactly is inconsistent here?

  13. Menendez pretending to be conservative on Cuba? That’s a reach, George, and you know it. He gains nothing from standing up for Cuba, in fact he loses. You know that. He’s in a blue state and could easily ignore the Cuba issue with no political ramifications. And Flake has a solid record voting for conservative fiscal issues. Therefore, you’re back to being inconsistent.

    Try again.

  14. I don’t support neither one, why?

    For the last four years Obama has introduced a number of unilateral concessions to the Castro tyranny and the Castro brothers in return have increased the repression on the Cuban people.

    Has Senator Menendez been able to away Obama on the Cuba issue for the last four years? Absolutely NO…

    Senator Menendez should have publicly and loudly condemned Obama for his decisions a while ago for everyone in his party to hear, regardless of the flak he could have catched within the party.

    Instead Senator Menendez continues to support Obama in turning America into another “Marxist/Socialist Paradise”, one that Senator Menendez should have better known not to support due to his Cuban-American background.

    At best Senator Menendez should have left the Democratic Party and become an independent but, we all know the Senator doesn’t have the courage and convictions for that kind of political move.

    Regarding Jeff Flake, I cannot and will not support a Democrat or Republican who embraces lifting of the embargo to the Castro tyranny and engaging that tyranny regardless of how conservative he’s.

    I cannot support any American politician who wants to reward two bloody tyrants who continue to murder and oppress their people. I could care less whether they’re liberal or conservatives, I’m very consistent about my beliefs and no amount of logic will sway me from it.

    Now Senator Menendez has been caught in a much bigger scandal involving underage prostitutes. If these allegations are proven true, the Senator career is toast, period.

    Let this be a lesson to our upcoming Cuban-American politicians (Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio) that they must keep their careers squeaky clean, otherwise they’ll meet a similar fate as Senator Menendez.

  15. I find both Flake and Menendez dubiously inconsistent and cannot trust either one. Flake’s Cuba fixation is very fishy. Menendez, apart from voting liberal on most things, endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2008, knowing her election would mean Bill as co-president. I found that both dissonant and disgraceful for a Cuban. In Flake’s case, I suspect hidden motive, but I think Menendez just wants to have it both ways. He may not need the NJ Cuban vote by now, but he surely needed it earlier in his career, and if he’d just discarded his anti-Castro stance like a used condom once it was no longer crucial to getting re-elected, he would have been exposed and rightfully denounced as an opportunistic fraud (see Charlie Crist).

  16. If Menendez is guilty as alleged, he will go down because he’s Cuban and anti-Castro, and thus inconvenient. A similarly liberal and established Dem without that “blemish” would be far more likely to get a pass, or certainly every possible benefit of the doubt (which would NEVER happen with a Republican).

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