Menendez's 'constituent service'
In 1998, back when U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez was Rep. Menendez, he wrote a letter to federal prison officials asking that a father and son who were in jail on racketeering and drug charges be allowed to transfer to a facility closer to home, allowing them to be reunited at Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institute.
A Menendez spokesman said the then-congressmen had no relationship with the mobsters, Nicholas and Antonino Parlavecchio, and that writing the letter on behalf of prisoners seeking transfers so visitation would be more convenient was not unusual.
What do you think? Should elected officials be going to bat for mobsters under any circumstances? Is there anything untoward about what Menendez did?
A Menendez spokesman said the then-congressmen had no relationship with the mobsters, Nicholas and Antonino Parlavecchio, and that writing the letter on behalf of prisoners seeking transfers so visitation would be more convenient was not unusual.
What do you think? Should elected officials be going to bat for mobsters under any circumstances? Is there anything untoward about what Menendez did?
posted by Randy Bergmann at 6:30 PM
7 Comments:
I won't vote for Menendez, but unless there is something more to this story, what he did in writing to the Federal Bureau of Prisons sounds, to me, like just run of the mill constituent service. It is the sort of stuff that Congressman do everyday.
If anything, I admire Menendez a little more for being compassionate, particularly when the easy political thing to do was to play the I'm-tough-on-crime card. I imagine I am unusual in that I must be one of the few people that actually likes to open the newspaper on Christmas morning and read that the Governor and/or the President signed some pardons and commutations the previous afternoon. To me, being merciful has always been a sign of character.
Seamus must be a priest cause he sounds almost saintly.
I, on the other hand, hate to see the connected get more than their share of a scarce pool of pardons- like when Clinton pardoned Marc Rich in the last day in office.
It generally stinks to high heaven (you know where Seamus is headed).
This is an attempt to slander Menendez by innuendo and you should be ashamed of yourself. You do not suggest that Menendez benefitted from the letter, nor do you suggest that, besides being closer to home, the two convicts benefitted from being at Fort Dix. Additionally, Menendez probably had nothing to do with it. I am sure some staffer who handles constituent services wrote the letter. This type of thing is very routine is Congressional offices.
Except Mr. AJ Lynch, there is no suggestion of a pardon here. All that happened is that these two convicts were moved from one prison to another. No pardon, no reduction of their time. Just a simple, straightforward move to another prison.
AYD:
Jeez I did not imply this was the equivalent of a pardon just that it's a sign that pols can be inlfuenced by all kinds of scumbags. Why are you so defensive? Incumbents of all parties (if they are sleazy like Memendez IMHO) deserve to be voted out of office. Don't worry- they won't go hungry.
I must have misunderstood what you meant when you said you "hate to see the connected get more than their share of a scarce pool of pardons."
It just made no sense to me because there was no pardon and Members of Congress writing letters asking for prison switches is not "scarce."
I am a Catholic, AJ Lynch, but I am no priest. Thanks for the kind words.
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