As the discussions about sex and sex scandals dominate the media due to the Petraeus affair, one affair the media are strangely silent about is that of New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, who was handily reelected last week despite shocking allegations that his idea of an Easter vacation was flying to the Dominican Republican to soliciting sex from prostitutes. Oh, and, like Secret Service agents in Colombia before him, the hookers are saying that he stiffed them on the tab.
The latest development in the Menendez saga, according to Scott Wong at Politico is that:
Middlesex County Republicans alleged that Menendez did not seek permission from the Senate or report several trips he took to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic since 2010. According to the complaint, Menendez took at least four trips on a corporate jet owned by Salomon Melgen, who has donated more than $200,000 to Democrats since the early 1990s, including nearly $13,000 to Menendez.
However, a Department of Homeland Security passenger manifest showed that Menendez was not on the Melgen plane for one of those trips, an April flight to the Dominican Republic.
'It does not appear that Senator Menendez’s apparent acceptance of private jet travel and luxury lodging was permitted by Senate gift rules,' Samuel D. Thompson, chairman of the Middlesex County Republican Organization and a New Jersey state senator, wrote in the complaint. 'Nor does it appear that Senator Menendez disclosed acceptance of this travel and lodging on his financial disclosure form—as he would be required to do even if the gifts were otherwise permissible.
Further, if Senator Menendez solicited prostitution while a Member of the United States Senate, this conduct would be reprehensible.
Yes, it would be, although the broadcast networks have ignored the charges, according to a search of Nexis.
Yet, the Petraeus scandal is a greater one given the CIA director's position of trust and access to classified information. That being said, the media's attention to one sex scandal cannot be a legitimate excuse to completely ignore another one that has been brewing since before the election.
The media shouldn’t go light on Petraeus, but outright omitting the Menendez charges seems to show the media will do their level best to ignore embarrassing congressional Democrats.
