Frustrated by a lack of cooperation from the British government in his investigation of possible connection between the Lockerbie bomber's release and a lucrative oil drilling contract BP got with Libya, Sen. Bob Menendez is looking for whistleblowers.
Menendez will chair an upcoming Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing and is working alongside Frank Lautenberg on this.
Nearly 22 years ago Pan Am's Flight 103 was bombed out of the sky over Lockerbie, Scotland. All 243 passengers, 16 crew, were killed as parts of the 747 rained down on the little town known for its sheep. Eleven more were killed in Lockerbie. From NJ, 38 died.
The investigation - led by the local constabulary and FBI - took in 15,000 witness statements. It yielded 2 suspects, both Libyan - one acquitted, and Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, Libyan intelligence officer and head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines. Only after long negotiations with Muammar al-Gaddafi, and sanctions against Libya, was al-Megrahi turned over. He was convicted of murder but served only 8 years.
Here's where access to info gets tight, and that's what the senators are working on. The bomber's true medical condition is of great controversy. Why didn't he get chemo in Scotland? is just one question. But there are more, including if/how BP stood to gain by the Lockerbie bomber's get out of jail free card, with a fat oil contract with Libya. Menendez is on an info hunt. Looking for whistleblowers on these questions:
Negotiations between BP & Libyan Government from 2003 on
Conversations between the UK Government & BP re: oil and natural gas exploration in Libya from 2003 on
Negotiations between UK & Libyan governments from 2003 on
Medical condition of al-Megrahi before/after release
Scottish medical community's view of al-Megrahi's diagnosis
Legal representation of al-Megrahi during appeals for interim liberation, prisoner release & compassionate release
The approval-disapproval numbers for the sample of 801 New Jersey adults:
Obama 52-42
Lautenberg 45-31
Menendez 37-31
Own Congressman 54-28
We all know most Representatives are re-elected, but somehow I'm still surprised. 66% of the sample is "dissatisfied with the way things are currently going in Washington," yet they like their own Congressman. Perhaps there is something to be said for the way district boundaries are drawn? In any case, this suggests to me that the NJ3 race is the only one to be competitive. Most New Jersey adults (51%) think it doesn't make any difference who controls Congress, with the parties splitting the remainder equally. That's the disillusionment that the Republicans sought with their "Party of No" strategy in the Senate thanks to the super-majority rules.
A comment on Bob Menendez: He just isn't as well known. Not only his overall disapprove, but the subgroups of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans have virtually identical "disapproval ratings" as Lautenberg does. His missing approval numbers are in the volunteered "Don't Know" category, at least in this poll, and at the end of the 2012 those voters who like the very same acts by Obama and Lautenberg will vote for Menendez. You may recall that other pollsters recently found Menendez at a net plus 7 (50-43, Rasmussen) and minus 5 (38-43, Quinnipiac.) But look at how pollsters can differ: Rasmussen's automated poll of "likely voters," which (I think) pushes voters for a second choice, has only 7% "don't know" but Monmouth's poll of adults, with presumably no pushing from the human operators, has 32%. Lots of people don't vote! The pollster also has numbers showing there's not much support for the recall effort.
The headline for the energy poll was the offshore oil drilling:
Just 31% of Garden State residents are in favor of drilling for oil or gas off the New Jersey coast, while 63% are opposed. This marks a turnaround from two years ago, when a majority of 56% favored this energy option compared to only 36% who opposed it.
By comparison, support for both wind and nuclear energy remains basically unchanged. Fully 8-in-10 residents support the placement of energy-generating windmills off the New Jersey coast (80% today, compared to 82% in 2008) and just under 4-in-10 support building another nuclear power plant in the state (37% today, compared to 41% in 2008).
Pollster Patrick Murray observes that the coastal counties give the same numbers as the inland ones.
As for this Salem County resident, I think the interesting number is that 58% statewide oppose a new nuclear power plant.
When asked "which of the following do you think should be the more important priority for U.S. energy policy - keeping energy prices low or protecting the environment?", 28% go for low prices and 55% for the environment. 15% volunteer "both" despite not being given it as a choice. New Jersey is not Sarah Palin country.
Senator Menendez appeared this morning on Meet the Press with David Gregory in his role as DSCC chairman. They were joined by his counterpart at the RSCC and the heads of the RCCC and DCCC to talk about the upcoming 2010 election.
Following his appearance, this is what the Senator had to say via tweet:
On Meet the Press, my Republican colleagues couldn't name a single difference than what they did under the Bush economic agenda. More debtless than a minute ago via UberTwitterSen. Robert Menendez SenatorMenendez
Yesterday, I noted that the Tea Party is mad at Senator Menendez for -- get this -- leading the charge to re-imprison the bomber of Pan Am Flight 103 and investigate BP's part in trading justice for oil drilling contracts in Libya.
The tea partiers, who often chide others as neglectful of the text of the U.S. Constitution, are angry that Menendez is pursuing the Lockerbie/BP criminals when he didn't give the federal government greater surveillance powers (but that was during the Bush administration, so it's OK!). Never mind that pursuing a mass-murderer and reducing civil liberties are not one in the same -- they think he's a hypocrite.
Of course, they also think there's nothing hypocritical about pocket-constitution-thumping when they're trying to disrupt more than two centuries of the constitutionally designated six-year Senate term. Whatever suits their partisan agenda.
And -- surprise! -- the Tea Party also cited a vote that was wrong, wrong, wrong. They claimed Menendez voted against implementing the 9/11 commission recommendations. Except he didn't. Not in the least. He voted against a motion that would gut the bill. He happened to be a co-sponsor of the bill that passed the Senate, and the original sponsor of the bill introduced in the House in 2006.
In response came this gem from Rob Asaro-Angelo: "If this Tea Party organization misrepresents a fact so basic as Senator Menendez's leadership on the 9/11 Commission bill, it has to make people wonder what else they are misleading about. You have to fact-check what you read on the internet, but I guess that's too much to ask from the folks who founded Conservapedia."
Senator Menendez did the media rounds yesterday to talk about the connections between BP, Libya and the Pan Am 103 bomber. Here's the video of his appearance on Fox News with Shep Smith:The Senator said in the interview that this action to free the bomber undermines our collective effort in fighting global terrorism and they will push this to the max, despite the fact that the British Government is an ally and doesn't seem interested in looking into the matter. And here's his MSNBC interview on the topic:Along with talking about the BP/Libya connections, the Senator also talked on MSNBC about the situtation in the Senate with jobless benefits. He said the Republicans are just being obstructionists pointing to all their efforts to stand in the way by saying NO and voting NO.
More heat on corporate BP is coming from both our Senators Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez & NY Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, who are now demanding the release of all documents related to BP's role in the suspicious early release from British prison of the man who bombed Pan Am Flight 103 out of the sky in 1988.
The senators wrote to BP Chair Carl-Henric Svanberg in London & Tony Hayward, BP's BP America's CEO and stateside apologist in the Deepwater Horizon spill, which has now spewed out 215 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over 86 days, according to this count.
Both public and private communications are what the senators want as they try to unravel reports that the doctors' report urging the Lockerbie bomber get early compassionate release from prison was cooked to smooth the way for a huge oil drilling deal between BP and Libya. Convicted bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet Al Megrahi came home to a hero's welcome in Libya. And he is still alive nearly a year after doctors said he had 3 months to live. The senators are calling for a State Department probe, and Lautenberg is also requesting an investigation and hearing by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
Jump with me for the full text of the senators letter:
Sen. Frank Lautenberg was on CNN yesterday about possible corporate wrongdoing by British Petroleum (BP) in the early release of the Lockerbie bomber. Was the British decision to release him early - when doctors said he had just weeks to live - a dirty deal that British Petroleum was involved in? Frank Lautenberg says the doctors' report was fabricated, that the real reason he was released was to smooth the way for a $20 billion dollar deepwater oil drilling deal British Petroleum (BP) now has with the nation of Libya. On that day in 1988 when plane parts, fire, and bodies rained down on Lockerbie, Scotland, 270 people died, 189 from America, 33 from New Jersey.
Senator Menendez appeared on Morning Joe earlier today to talk with the panel about a variety of issues. He started talking about his plan to end tax breaks for oil companies, then moved on to the push back from Wall Street before talking about the housing problems and Sarah Palin. You can see the segment here:
Senator: Just noted your letter regarding the oil spill research capabilities of Earl Naval Weapons Station.
While that facility is important, there are far bigger fish to fry right here in NJ.
If you would take a peek, you would see that Governor Christie is slashing NJ's capabilities to prevent and respond to an oil spill or chemical accident:
"Maybe Commissioner Martin will do more than just issue press releases and computer model the highly unlikely impacts of the Gulf oil on NJ's shore.
Like maybe he might do some actual field tests of DEP's emergency response plans (like DEP did in 2005) and assure that they are fully resourced. Perhaps he might be asked to assure that prevention/TCPA & DPCC regulations are strictly enforced (or compare those plans and capabilities to the highly deficient BP and Coast Guard plans in the Gulf, so that lessons can be learned)."
As head of the DSCC, Senator Menendez has weighed in over the controversy surrounding Alvin Greene in South Carolina, the candidate who won the US Senate Primary to face Jim DeMint in the General:
"This is clearly not in our whole universe of the electoral map, where we have focused our attention before Alvin Greene," he said. "We have other great races to pursue, and you know, obviously we attribute our resources, and our time and attention, to where we best think we can achieve both pickups, and of course, re-elect our incumbents."
"Based upon all of the allegations -- if the allegations are true, I'd like to see another Democrat replace him unquestionably," he added. "But if you ask me, 'Is it where we are going to spend a lot of time and attention of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee?' -- you know, I don't have unlimited resources."
Keith Olbermann last night called it the "Immaculate Election." You can see the full interview with the Senator below:
South Carolina Democrats rejected a protest of last weeks vote, though allegations and questions still abound. The Senator certainly has his hands full this cycle in a very tough climate. As you can see, the last thing he wants to do is get involved spending time and resources on this fight in South Carolina.
We have new New Jersey polls from Quinnipiac and Rasmussen. Between the two, Chris Christie does about the same as before, and I'd say so far he is holding onto the people that elected him.
Rasmussen has Governor Christie at a solid 51% approval with 45% disapproval. Quinnipiac has him at 44-43%. Right or wrong, Rasmussen is consistently about six points more Republican than other pollsters, so the better Rasmussen number is just what we should expect. Quinnipiac notes especially strong support (56%-29%) in the "Shore" region.
The bottom line is this: the sample included in Rasmussen's polling is increasingly out of balance with that observed by almost all other pollsters. This appears to create a substantial house effect, irrespective of whether Rasmussen subsequently applies a likely voter screen.
Quinnipiac has Senator Bob Menendez at 43% approval to 38% approval, "his highest disapproval ever." On the other hand, Rasmussen surprisingly finds Menendez's approval at 50%(!) and disapproval at 43%. Of course, Rasmussen buries the number in a release touting NJ likely voters as split 39-39 on recalling him. Combining the two Menendez seems to be where he usually is.
President Obama is at 50-46 according to Quinnipiac. These state polls don't give us data on Adler, the guy actually in a 2010 battle, and unfortunately, I don't see a generic Congressional ballot either. I recommend this post by Tom Jensen on the likelihood of Democrats staying home.
On issues, Rasmussen finds strong support for salary freezes at schools and capping property taxes. Quinnipiac finds the same thing with a slightly different question, even though they also find strong liking for teachers. On the other hand, Quiniipiac found an overwhelming majority (72%) are worried about state aid cuts increasing their property taxes. Furthermore, 61% say Christie should have signed the millionaires tax, which oddly enough Rasmussen didn't ask about. A similar number oppose increasing their own property taxes to avoid cuts to schools.
Quinnipiac asked about the Supreme Court and Judge Wallace in various ways: More people disapprove of Christie's actions than approve, but many don't know about the issue.
The transition from being an outside-the-establishment campaign organization to being an inside-the-establishment policy promoter has not been an easy one for O.F.A. The first year was marked by widespread frustration, as volunteers tried to get their heads around the arcane changes in, say, the health care bill as it meandered its way through Congress, while simultaneously being urged not to attack members of their own party who wavered on the agenda. "Sometimes the lack of tangibility can be distressing for people," Plouffe told me. "Because they'll go out there and say: 'I worked hard. I had a press conference. I had all these people write letters to the editor. And my member of Congress voted against health care. It didn't seem to matter.' That's reality, unfortunately.
I don't doubt that some could be disappointed by this -- I was pre-disappointed and didn't waste my time on LoBiondo much. But Bai points at a much bigger problem for Plouffe. What does Plouffe think bloggers, journalists, and anyone paying attention thought when we got press releases and e-mail messages urging us to pressure Frank LoBiondo and Leonard Lance but nothing on John Adler? The important "reality" is not that Leonard Lance isn't afraid of OFA volunteers, but that OFA didn't seem to really care about the agenda. If OFA did care, they'd have pushed Adler. I think it's part of the reason health care remains weak in the polls. (As for the "arcane changes," Bai is being too polite as it was all too clear that Obama reversed himself on what were high-profile issues in the primary and general elections.)
I think there's a lesson there for Menendez and the DSCC too, sending out memos that many take to be attacking unions. Praise your nominee in Arkansas, by all means, but watch who you are attacking. I'm sure your spirits are high that the Chamber of Commerce helped your candidate, but they won't be there in the fall, and most of their ideas are terrible anyway. When the message is that what you do and how you vote is not important as long as you're already in the establishment, failure will follow quickly. It'll be all the quicker when you adopt Republican policies.
To require a plan for the safe, orderly, and expeditious redeployment of the United States Armed Forces from Afghanistan.
The vote failed 18-80 with both Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez voting for limitless war, or if you prefer, trusting the President and our generals. In a rational world the 80 Senators would not complain about the deficit ever again, but we know it's quite the opposite in the world we've got. I'm with Booman, I don't have any confidence. It seems even McChrystal acknowledges failure but no one will ever consider the "off ramps" (...though see this discussion of what the general said.) Call me conservative, but just because talented, hard-working people in the government want to do something doesn't mean it will work. Don't mistake me, I certainly hope I'm wrong.
Senators Lautenberg and Menendez both praised the decision but called for more:
"President Obama took an important step today to halt the most imminent environmental threat to the Atlantic coast. However, the danger will remain until drilling in the Atlantic is taken off the table altogether," Lautenberg said. "BP's oil catastrophe in the Gulf is a wake-up call for our nation. Giving Big Oil more access to our nation's waters will only lead to more pollution, more lost jobs, and more damage to our economy. We need a permanent ban on drilling in the Atlantic, tightened regulations, and a real push to find clean energy alternatives to oil."
"Small businesses preparing for the beach season have no doubt wondered how they would survive if oil started washing up on the Jersey Shore," said Menendez. "We can all breathe easier that our shore will not be put at risk from a nearby oil rig in the foreseeable future. The Jersey Shore is part of our lives, and for many New Jersey families, it is the source of their livelihoods. This action will protect us in the near term, but we ultimately need to go a number of steps further and ensure that the East Coast will never be subject to oil rigs. Now is the time to put our muscle behind finally transitioning from the fossil fuels of the past to the clean, limitless energy sources of the future."
My sense of the President's remarks in the press conference today was that he expressed more skepticism about oil drilling than he had earlier, but still argues that more oil will be needed until we move to other energy sources. He doesn't want to admit that he made a mistake by co-opting Sarah Palin's policy. Judge for yourself -- here is a portion of his answer to a question during his transcript of the news conference:
I mean, we're still years off and some technological breakthroughs away from being able to operate on purely a clean-energy grid.
During that time, we're going to be using oil. And to the extent that we're using oil, it makes sense for us to develop our oil and natural gas resources here in the United States and not simply rely on imports.
That's important for our economy. That's important for economic growth. So the overall framework -- which is to say, domestic oil production should be part of our overall energy mix -- I think continues to be the right one. Where I was wrong was in my belief that the oil companies had their act together when it came to worst- case scenarios.
On the other hand, I used another eighth of a tank of gas today. Individually it may not matter but as a whole New Jersey used a lot of gas today and will again tomorrow.
On the floor of the US Senate, right now, Sen. Menendez is laying out a case to eliminate any cap on the amount of economic damages that oil companies would have to pay for spills they've caused. He is due shortly to be joined by Senator Frank Lautenberg and Sen. Bill Nelson.
The Democrats' proposed legislation, called the Big Oil Bailout Prevention Act, is a revision of earlier legislation from Menendez which would have raised the cap from $75 million to $10 billion. This jacks up the heat on British Petroleum, although as expected it has already been objected to on the other side of the aisle, as there was opposition to Menendez' earlier proposal of the $10 billion cap. President Obama has not so far named a figure to raise the cap to, though they have discussed raising it.
Rand Paul was supposed to be a guest on Meet the Press today with Joe Sestak, John Cornyn and Bob Menendez. Paul bailed after the really really bad week he had, but Menendez appeared and here's the show where they talked about the races in Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Connecticut among other topics. Toward the end of the segment, they also got into the immigration debate and the Arizona law:
Continuing his rounds on MSNBC, Senator Menendez spoke the other day with Andrea Mitchell saying he has no faith in BP and they're just involved in a public relations campaign at this point. He said he has a real problem believing the credibility. Menendez was critical of the MMS saying they couldn't be the oil industry's promoter and regulator at the same time:They then talked about his call to have a moratorium on offshore drilling saying we shouldn't permit 1 more lease until we know that this is something that should be pursued. Along the line of his comment on permit's, I was sent this quote from a story in the National Law Journal:
"This case is about lax regulation by the Minerals Management Service," said Earthjustice attorney David Guest in a statement. "It is actually easier to get a permit for an offshore oil well than for a hot dog stand."
The final vote today was 60-40 (yesterday it was 57-42). Next up is a final vote on passage, which is expected to take place within days.
After today's vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said there are "a couple of amendments that are germane post-cloture, but there the ones that we have to figure out a way to get resolved."
I'll confess my sympathies are with Senators Cantwell and Feingold who voted no over various loopholes and gaps in the legislation. I sure hope this is strong enough because I have my doubts.
"I think that, first of all, Attorney General Blumenthal has been an incredible advocate for veterans," Menendez told reporters. "I believe he's having an event today where veterans are standing with him and saying, you know, 'Dick Blumenthal has stood by our side.'"
Menendez continued: "He's corrected the record in the past, and I think, you know, his actions as it relates to standing up for veterans over a long period of time speaks volumes [about] both where his heart and his actions are. And so I'm sure those veterans who will be standing up for him today will make the case for him, and I'm sure he will continue to stay in the Senate race, and we will continue to support him."
He can spin it however he wants and say the NY Times wasn't fair in their story, but this is going to be tough to overcome and the video will surely end up in negative ads on rotation. Parsing Menendez's words, if Blumenthal were to say drop out of the race, then the DSCC wouldn't have to abandon their support. No matter who the Democrat is on the ballot, the Senator said this will be a race focused on the contrast with the opponent:
"The reality is that we have not gotten to a full vetting of, you know, the Republican candidate," Menendez said. "There's plenty to talk about in that respect. I think [Blumenthal's] record of standing up for Connecticut citizens, standing up for them as a consumer advocate, standing up for the veterans in that state, standing up against big companies that have tried to rip off the citizens of Connecticut ... when the other side of the equation is viewed, I think voters will have a clear choice."
The Democrats have until May 25 to replace Blumenthal if it appears he is too damaged. This is clearly a self inflicted wound and it remains to be seen whether Blumenthal can recover. Democrats thought they dodged a bullet when Dodd, whose numbers were suffering, chose not to seek re-election. Now it looks like the next one in line could be damaged goods as well. It's not like the issue will go away in the race as one of the Republicans running in the primary Rob Simmons is a Vietnam Veteran himself. He has already called on Blumenthal to apologize "to those whose heroism he has undeservedly capitalized on for his personal political purposes" and that's only the beginning. What do you think should happen?
