RUTHFULLY YOURS

Let’s get one thing out of the way, the administration bringing charges has openly sold ambassadorships to donors and bundlers.

It has arranged for huge grants to companies owned by its donors. Holder, who moved these charges forward, got involved in the pardon of Marc Rich, a wanted fugitive, in the hopes that he would get the Attorney General spot.

So whatever the merits of the case are, this is political. Top Democrats like Rangel and Reid have committed blatantly illegal acts. As Senate Majority Leader, Reid worked to aid Chinese business interests linked to his son. Hillary Clinton’s brother got a special mining concession from Haiti. Menendez isn’t being charged because of the merits of the case.

He’s being charged because he stood up to Obama on Iran. The timing here isn’t coincidental.

Four days ago Menendez gave a barn-burner of a speech that slammed, among others, Susan Rice.

Sen. Bob Menendez takes joy in being on the wrong side of Tehran, and he’s not afraid of being at odds with his own party’s White House.

“When it comes to defending the U.S.-Israel relationship, I am not intimidated by anyone—not Israel’s political enemies and not by my political friends when I believe they’re wrong,” Menendez declared to an energized crowd at the AIPAC policy conference Monday evening.

A call to action for his fellow members of Congress, Menendez vowed never to back down from a brawl to defend the U.S. and Israel’s “sacrosanct” and “untouchable” relationship.

“As long as I have an ounce of fight left in me, as long as I have a vote and a say and a chance to protect the interest of Israel, the region, and the national security interests of the United States—Iran will never have a pathway to a weapon,” Menendez says. “It will never threaten Israel or its neighbors, and it will never be in a position to start a nuclear-arms race in the Middle East. Not on my watch.”

Over the last several months, Menendez has made his frustrations with the Obama administration public. Shut out of foreign policy negotiations, Menendez has urged the Obama administration to work closer with Congress. It is not just Iran where Menendez and Obama differ: He has also derided President Obama’s decision to normalize relations with Cuba. And in a subcommittee hearing on the the U.S.-Cuban geopolitical shift, Menendez sounded more like Republican Sen. Marco Rubio than an ally of the president’s when he said, “The deal achieved nothing for Americans.”

“How much more are we willing to give? How much more are we willing to do to help the Castro regime fill the coffers of its military monopoly while the Cuban people still struggle to make ends meet?” Menendez said at a February hearing.

When it comes to his criticisms of America’s interest in negotiating with Iran, Menendez has been anything but subtle. He has accused the president of getting his foreign policy messaging “straight out of Tehran.”

That’s why Menendez is being charged. This is a thoroughly corrupt administration bringing out the brass knuckles against dissenters within its own party.

Menendez is charged with advocating on behalf of a donor’s business interests in exchange for gifts.

Meanwhile here’s just a sample of how Obama advocates on behalf of the business interests of his donors.

…In the 1705 government-backed-loan program [alone], for example, $16.4 billion of the $20.5 billion in loans granted as of Sept. 15 went to companies either run by or primarily owned by Obama financial backers—individuals who were bundlers, members of Obama’s National Finance Committee, or large donors to the Democratic Party. The grant and guaranteed-loan recipients were early backers of Obama before he ran for president, people who continued to give to his campaigns and exclusively to the Democratic Party in the years leading up to 2008.

If we had anything resembling equality under the law, Obama would be headed for prison. Except we don’t. Instead we don’t just have corruption, but sanctimonious double-dealing by the liars and thieves in charge.