Menendez sponsored bill to benefit big donor

posted at 9:21 am on March 4, 2013 by Ed Morrissey

The more the media looks into the ties between Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and his big donor and private-jet provider Salomon Melgen, the more potential corruption floats to the surface. Today, the Associated Press discovers that Melgen turns out to be one of the big investors in a company that would have benefited from Menendez’ sponsorship of legislation to provide federal subsidies to natural-gas conversions for automobiles (via JWF):

Sen. Robert Menendez sponsored legislation with incentives for natural gas vehicle conversions that would benefit the biggest political donor to his re-election, the same eye doctor whose private jet Menendez used for two personal trips to the Dominican Republic, an Associated Press investigation found. …

Dr. Salomon Melgen invested in Gaseous Fuel Systems Corp. of Weston, Fla., and joined its board of directors in early 2010, according to the company’s chief executive and a former company consultant. GFS, as the company is known, designs, manufactures and sells products to convert diesel-fuel fleets to natural gas. The amount of Melgen’s investment is confidential under rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission, but a 2009 document filed with the SEC showed the company required a minimum individual investment at that time of $51,500.

At the same time, Menendez emerged as a principal supporter of a natural gas bill that would boost tax credits and grants to truck and heavy vehicle fleets that converted to alternative fuels. The bill stalled in the Senate Finance Committee, and after it was revived in 2012, the NAT GAS Act failed to win the needed 60 votes to pass.

The AP tries to offer some objective distance from a rather obvious conclusion:

There is no evidence that Menendez offered direct help or intervened on behalf of the company or Melgen. Instead, the connection between the two men’s interests in natural gas is the latest example of the close symmetry between the senator — who recently rose to become chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee— and his millionaire backer. It illustrates the way Menendez’s political clout has at times overlapped with Melgen’s financial investments.

There isn’t any direct evidence, but this looks mighty suspicious, especially when viewed as part of a pattern.  First, an eye doctor sets up shop as a port-security specialist at the same time he’s wooing a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who just happens to get interested in the Dominican Republic’s ability to protect shipping at the same time Melgen’s giving him private-jet rides to the DR.  Next, the eye doctor suddenly decides to invest in natural-gas conversions — and there is Senator Robert-On-The-Spot to sponsor a bill that would provide federal cash to companies involved in the effort.  I may not be a math genius like my son, but I can add two and two together.

To many of us, the NAT GAS proposal seemed unnecessary and a certain path to even more crony capitalism.  This shows just how justified those suspicions were.  The real question is whether the Senate Ethics Committee will find this objectionable, or whether they will want to protect business as usual.

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“When the Bush administration was wracked with the leaks of classified information about its counter-terrorism policies, most notably its interrogation and electronic surveillance programs, Democrats in Congress happily took advantage of the information.

Nary a peep was heard about protecting national security and preventing the media from publishing classified information.

But now President Obama has to live in the leak-happy world that he and his colleagues created to undermine the last administration. And they don’t like it. Unlike the Bush administration, however, they are willing to go to lengths that threaten the freedom of the press to stop it — this administration has conducted far more investigations and prosecutions for leaking than its predecessors. And, for the most part, this administration has gotten away with it from the press, which has given them a pass on civil liberties compared to how they treated Republicans.

I deplore the Obama administration’s assault on freedom of the press. But I have no sympathy for the AP or the mainstream media, because this is how you get treated when you are in a politician’s pocket. If the AP’s editors and reporters and their colleagues at other newspapers had been more adversarial toward this President, as they were with President Bush, they would been treated with far more respect. The AP should wish for a return of the days of a Republican administration, which considered the press a worthy adversary, rather than a servant to be mistreated at will…” – John Yoo

http://ricochet.com/main-feed/On-the-AP-Justice-Department-Story

workingclass artist on May 14, 2013 at 11:52 AM

So four dead Americans weren’t enough to get Carl off his fat butt but a shot at the liberal media has him exorcized? Welcome to the club buddy, a bit late aren’t you?

jnelchef on May 14, 2013 at 12:01 PM

Let’s face it, when push comes to shove, the leftwing media would choose a leftist dictatorship over a Republican victory. They’ll stamp their feet a little to let Obama know he got a little too close on this one but they will go back to sleep on his lap before too long.

jnelchef on May 14, 2013 at 12:04 PM

Welcome to the party pal.

Jack_Burton on May 14, 2013 at 12:27 PM

Fox news just said that Holder has recused himself from the investigation into the phone records seizure. Said it may mean that Holder did not sign off on it.

jffree1 on May 14, 2013 at 12:34 PM

Knee jerk reaction of a dictator… yawn… His reporter butt-buds don’t mind having their ‘love letters’ spied on.

RalphyBoy on May 14, 2013 at 12:47 PM

Amazing isn’t it, how upset the media gets when it’s their ox being gored.

hachiban on May 14, 2013 at 1:05 PM

the attorney general would have had to sign off on a request to wire tap the ap phones.

2012chuck on May 14, 2013 at 1:25 PM

I don’t recall the GOP treating the press as a “worthy adversary.” The Zombie Press is concerned only the progressive side, because they too are progtards.

I call them the Zombie press because they have less use than a Corpse. At least a corpse can be used for medical research and training. The Press Corpse is utterly useless these days, unless you are a Progtard politician.

Quartermaster on May 14, 2013 at 2:21 PM

Dear Carl,

I have attended many events at which you and/or your colleague – Bob Woodward – have spoken. I’ve been a fan for many years. Sadly, I am left with the sense that your questioning intellect lacks balance in the sense that you are less willing to question those whom you like or whose ideology is one that you perceive as similar to yours.

I expected more. You should have, too.

The signs that the current occupant of the White House and his supporters are all about power – not hope, not change – were there during the first election when there were threats to jail those who said “bad things” about the candidate. You recognized similar abuses of power in 70′s. Unfortunately, you completely missed it this time.

Here’s hoping that the tapping of the AP’s phone lines will lead to your personal reformation. To paraphrase my friend Sam, “there’s no such thing as a bad questions, there are just bad answers.”

And ALL questions should be on the table . . . at all times.

EB

EdmundBurke247 on May 14, 2013 at 2:36 PM

I wonder if the media will start connecting dots between this and Benghazi, and the IRS scandals, and Operation Fast and Furious, and …

No. The MSM created Obama and they will protect their reputations by protecting Obama.

BMF on May 14, 2013 at 4:49 PM

So, Carl’s bull finally got gored.

Barnestormer on May 14, 2013 at 5:01 PM

If the Obama administration is doing this to one of its biggest cheerleaders, I can only imagine what it’s secretly doing to conservative media.

Time for conservative journalists to have face to face meetings with contacts in parks, safe houses, and inside cars with heavily tinted windows in parking lots.

It’s time for PKI to be embedded in phones and emails because you can no longer trust the government–actually, you haven’t been able to trust the government for a long time now.

BMF on May 15, 2013 at 7:34 AM

We should also check if DOJ was tapping SCOTUS too, especially around the time of the Obamacare impossible-to-fathom ruling. This president openly attacked them, so you can probably assume his minions were using the full power of the government to make sure they were one step ahead of deliberations.

I’m not saying this happened, but you have to admit the pattern of intimidation is there.

virgo on May 15, 2013 at 10:21 AM

Comment pages: 1 2