This recent mailing was mentioned earlier today by sandy23, in a comment to Steven Hart's front page diary. I'd just like to add a bit more info.
The yellow postcards criticize Menendez for his opposition to the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, and suggest that New Jersey's Italian-Americans should therefore oppose the Senator and vote for Junior Kean.
The card was allegedly produced and mailed by the Filangieri Society for Justice and Good Government, an entity based in Monmouth Beach. If you check the organization's web site, it appears to be blank. Bad sign. It's probably just a phony front group run out of some guy's garage.
Just how stupid does this bogus Society (and/or the Kean campaign) think NJ's Italian-Americans are? Menendez obviously opposed Alito's nomination because Alito is an extremist right-winger, not because he is the wrong ethnic type.
Just as Junior is exploiting immigrant issues and smearing Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, he is attempting to exploit the fact that about 20% of New Jerseyans (as the card helpfully notes) are of Italian descent. Frankly, it seems vaguely creepy that some GOP goon (or computer) combed through voter lists for names that end with vowels.
Tom Kean's U.S. Senate campaign took a shot at the Democratic incumbent for voting against the confirmation of Samuel Alito as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court: "Today, Bob Menendez sent his message loud and clear -- partisanship is more important than the people of New Jersey. Instead of fighting for Judge Alito, he chose to embrace the political bitterness that is dividing America." But on the same day, Kean voted against the confirmation of Zulima Farber as Attorney General of New Jersey.
(It's no secret that Menendez wasn't my guy either, but he deserves credit for doing the right thing. PFAW and other groups that totally dropped the ball on this, deserve no such credit. - promoted by jmelli)
He wasn't my guy, and I wouldn't have backed him if I had been asked, but ya gotta give credit when credit's due, and he acquitted himself admirably in his first outing, commenting on the Alito appointment, I would say.
Video (here) and transcript courtesy of PFAW: Link Text
(Nice live-blogging by Kire of Lautenberg and Menendez' Senate speeches on Alito in the extended text. - promoted by jmelli)
Check out my live blogging of the Jersey guys (Lautenberg and Menendez) down below. But first:
I heard from someone on DU that his staff was still taking a tally on the filibuster as he was on the floor between 2:40 and 3:00 pm.
The original part of this thread was posted at 1 o'clock about John Kerry, but it has morphed into something completely different. I include that stuff on top just for continuity.
John Kerry was just on the floor from 12:40 to 1:00.
He asked for 15 more minutes, but was granted it only at 2:00 as they were on an hourly minority/majority basis.
So if Kerry takes 15 minutes at 2:00, whoever goes before Lautenberg will go until 2:35 and then Lautenberg will go from 2:35 to 2:55, leaving Menendez only 5 minutes befor the majority gets their hour back.
Do you think that will be enough time for Menendez to make his announcement? I don't.
I'm starting to think Kerry is really just a hog. John in DC and Matt Stoller may be right. Kerry is using the Netroots for his '08 aspirations.
I just called and the staffer told me the decision will be made at 2:40pm. So call away until then!! (202) 224-4744 or fax (202) 228-2197 - and maybe after depending on what he announces.
(Egg on my face. This is the self-correcting blogosphere at work. Keep calling!
Update: Senator Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) will be voting against Alito. - promoted by jmelli)
In a previous diary, jmelli claimed that Menendez is supporting the filibuster, citing only Grapevine evidence. In that thread, Bertin Lefkovic wondered where jmelli got that information because it was not verified on Google or anywhere else.
You would think, if this were true, that PoliticsNJ or the Star Ledger would have picked it up by now.
So in a display of the self-correcting nature of the blogosphere, I called Menendez's office just now, 9 am on Monday morning, and asked them. The greeter told me that jmelli is wrong. Menendez is not supporting the filibuster. Yet.
So get on those phones and call him at (202) 224-4744. The time is now!
We hear that Senator Bob Menendez will be supporting an effort to filibuster Alito. Call his office to let him know we're behind him, and call Lautenberg's office to encourage him to join the filibuster.
Sen. Bob Menendez: (202) 224-4744 Sen. Frank Lautenberg: (202) 224-3224
Menendez' Senate challenger Tom Kean Jr yesterday said that "if we can't count on our two senators to fight for New Jersey and a highly qualified judicial appointment, who can we count on to fight for us?"
Menendez spokesperson Matthew Miller said the office has received 918 calls against confirming Alito and 190 in favor. Miller: "We take the opinions of all of our constituents very seriously. ... We'll add Junior's call to the list, and that will make it 191."
Update: Senator Kerry is supporting a filibuster of Alito. Call Menendez and Lautenberg and urge them to join the filibuster. Sen. Bob Menendez: (202) 224-4744 Sen. Frank Lautenberg: (202) 224-3224
(These are just "rumors on the internets", so take with a spoonful of salt. Earlier today, conservative Democratic Senator Bill Nelson of Florida said he will vote against Alito, so anything is possible. Also, Senator Feingold voted against a Alito - the first time he has voted against a Supreme Court nominee in his career. If Nelson and Feingold can vote against Alito, so can Menendez. Make sure he hears that you expect a filibuster to prevent replacing moderate Justice O'Connor with an extremist. - promoted by jmelli)
From the chair of NJ NOW:
RUMOR HAS IT CLOSE TO FILIBUSTER: WE NEED MENENDEZ:
FORWARD AD NAUSEUM
Please take a few moments of your day TODAY to CALL Senator Menendez's offices. Let him know you expect him to continue his record of supporting women and their families, and that while you know these may be his first two weeks, we need these first two weeks to be his greatest. **Tell his office you expect a filibuster!**
**Leave a message if you can't get through. Each call from you is equal to 10 people who feel that way and didn't call! **
**1. CALL THE WASHINGTON OFFICE:** (202) 224-4744
**2. Call The South Jersey Office** (856) 757-4353
I'd say call Menendez, Lautenberg, Schumer (who's taking a tally) Reid, Feingold, Feinstein and Leahy and ask for a filibuster. Call Snowe, Collins. Congressional switchboard: 800-614-2803 or get individual numbers of gang of 14 at NJ Media Corps
Corzine speaks in support of Laurel Hester: "My personal view is that this was a committed relationship, and I would be sympathetic with death benefits being paid."
Senator Menendez expressed concerns about judge Alito's views on abortion rights and presidential powers: "I am unsettled he is not willing to say Roe is settled law." You can urge Menendez to oppose Alito by calling his office at (202) 224-4744.
State legislators wasted no time introducing a bill that would ban smoking in casinos, hoping to close the ridiculous exemption in the recently signed smoking ban.
A WSJ/Zogby poll has Tom Kean Jr leading Senator Menendez (45-38) in a Senate matchup. A recent FDU poll had Kean up 36-25.
Democrats in the state outraised Republicans by 3-1, despite the new pay-to-play law. It's time for real pay-to-play reform, not the half-assed measures we've been given by a leadership afraid to break the viscious power-purchasing cycle.
According to Cindy Adams of the New York Post, Corzine "thanked a laundry list of people at his swearing-in, but not" Bob Torricelli, "whose name was on his printed text."
The Philadelphia Inquirer wonders if newly minted New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez will give thumbs up to Sam "The Sham" Alito for the U.S. Supreme Court. In response, Menendez blows enough smoke to earn himself a mention in the Kyoto Protocol. Now, I wasn't happy when it became clear that Jon Corzine was going to put Menendez in his old Senate seat, and I complained about it here at long and no doubt wearisome length. Now that Menendez has the prize he spent decades angling for, I can only sit and hope to be pleasantly surprised, and a "no" vote on this fork-tongued, sidestepping legal apologist for the imperial presidency would definitely fall under the heading of "pleasant surprise."
You hear that, senator? I said "pleasant surprise." Pleasant surprise! PLEASANT SURPRISE.
What we conveniently forget when we hail the heroes of the women's movement, the civil rights movement, the abolitionist movement, the labor movement, and every great American struggle for dignity, freedom and equality is that so many people fought really really hard AGAINST these great societal changes, and continue to do so here in NJ and around the nation.
They are the unsung anti-heroes of selfishness, greed and hate, and those who have prospered mightily by willingly associating with these dishonorable folks deserve far more attention than they usually get. So, for the tears of a wife too shocked or ashamed to hear her husband called out for his bigoted past, or lying about it, that sound you hear is the world's smallest fiddle.
Jerry Falwell. Tony Perkins from the Family Research Council. James Dobson from Focus on the Family. Rick Santorum. All coming to Philadelphia on Jan 8 to rally on "Justice Sunday" to pack the Supreme Court. This event will be telecast live across the country.
Happy New Year, everybody.
"Justice" is the right to health care and effective HIV prevention, reproductive freedom, and freedom from homophobia and bigotry -- not fundamentalist extremism from the extreme right wing.
Join ACT UP Philadelphia, people of faith, people of conscience, women's health groups and other friends in Philadelphia at 7 PM on Sunday January 8 2006 to protest "Justice Sunday III" -- a national rally for religious extremist groups who are fighting for a judiciary that is as reactionary as they are.
"Justice Sunday III" comes just one day before the Senate Judiciary Committee opens hearings for Supreme Court Justice Nominee Samuel Alito.
"Justice Sunday III" will include notorious fixtures of the radical right Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, and Jerry Falwell along with Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum.
These right wing religious groups exert extraordinarily powerful influence over White House policies on HIV prevention, global AIDS, science, sex education and public health.
Join us outside the Greater Exodus Baptist Church, at 704 North Broad Street at 6:30 for a spirited rally and protest.
For more information please call ACT UP Philadelphia at (215) 386-1981
