the rix mix

If Sen. Bob Menendez loses in November, September 28 will be remembered as the day his campaign "jumped the shark." This phrase refers to an episode of "Happy Days" when Fonzie, wearing water skis & a leather jacket, jumped over a shark. Fans of the show generally agree it's the point at which the show began it's long, final decline, & so the amusing phrase has passed into the popular lexicon as signifying the tipping point for a TV show or a career. The election is no longer Menendez's to win or lose. It may now depend on his colorless opponent with the high name recognition, Tom Kean Junior, managing to avoid any major faux pax. If Senator Menendez desired the worst kind of national attention for his campaign, he could hardly have picked a more effective way to do it than to vote "yea" on S. 3930. For his vote, he receives absolutely no credit from Republicans. He's no Joe Lieberman. But for the liberal left, what he did was scandalous. For Menendez is not the President's war hawk pal or a Democrat representing a solidly conservative midwestern state, but a Senator from New Jersey, which twice soundly rejected George W. Bush for President. New Jerseyans were never bamboozled into believing Saddam ordered the attacks on 9/11. New Jersey has not elected a Republican to the Senate since 1972.

I could go into other reasons Senator Menendez is struggling. He was not a clear popular choice for Senator when Governor Corzine needed to appoint his own replacement; it was an open field. Many of us wanted some kind of primary campaign, with another candidate running to the left or right of Menendez to test him in debates, on current issues. His 13th Congressional district is urban, geographically small, controled by three of this state's strongest county machines, including the two that allied & conspired to give us former Gov. Jim "Parkway Rest Stop" McGreevey. Menendez was practically unknown to voters outside of a narrow zone bordering the rivers that divide Jersey from New York City. & he was associated, fairly or unfairly, with the Hudson County Democratic organization, the nastiest & historically most notorious in the state. So there you have it. Given one clear, beautiful & obvious opportunity to inspire & solidify his support from Democratic voters throughout New Jersey, who are already united in opposition to the current adminstration in the White House, but many of whom felt some other congressman or state legislator would have been a better pick for the senate seat Menendez is trying to keep, & he managed to blow it. He proved us correct. There were better choices.