Today is the next red letter day on the calendar of disgraced New Jersey Senator Bob "Gold Bar" Menendez. After being convicted last month of 16 felonies involving bribery and corruption, Menendez will be resigning his position. But that doesn't mean that he's played the last card in his hand. According to at least one longtime associate of Menendez in New Jersey, Gold Bar Bob is currently in negotiations with President Joe Biden, probably looking to land some sort of an exit package. This would most likely take the form of a pardon or at least a commutation of his sentence to keep him out of prison. But would Joe Biden even consider making an offer like that? And if so... why? (NY Post)

Disgraced Democratic Senator Robert Menendez is scheduled to resign from office Tuesday, and is negotiating a pardon from Joe Biden before the president leaves office at the end of the year, according to political analysts and longtime associates of the New Jersey lawmaker.

Menendez’ was convicted last month on 16 felony counts of bribery and corruption for accepting cash and gold in exchange for using his powerful post to enrich and protect three businessmen and the Egyptian and Qatari governments.

“He’s likely trying to get a pardon or a reduction in his sentence,” said a New Jersey political operative who did not want to be identified.

The first thing to keep in mind here is that every bit of the sourcing for this story is coming from anonymous political activists in New Jersey, so it should be taken with a sizable grain of salt. Do I believe that Menendez is scrambling around at the last minute to try to secure himself a deal? Absolutely. That would be fully in character for him. It's the same reason that he dropped his Democratic Party affiliation and switched to being an independent for a run at another term. Now he has dropped out of the race entirely. That's the final "gift" that he had to offer, showing that he was willing to avoid splitting the vote in November and risk giving his seat to the Republican challenger.

Bob Menendez is looking at as much as 200 years in prison at his sentencing hearing in October, though the odds are that wouldn't get anywhere near that much. Still, he would like to avoid prison entirely if at all possible. But why would Joe Biden even take his calls, to say nothing of tossing him a pardon? Unless Menendez has some dirt on Biden that we've never heard about, it's hard to see what the motivation might be. Unless Joe Biden has truly thrown his party entirely under the bus at this point, pardoning Menendez now would be a huge albatross around the neck of the entire Democratic ticket. As one New Jersey analyst pointed out, pardoning Gold Bar Bob now would turn him into the poster child for Democrats as the "party of corruption."

Of course, there is one other alternative available. Biden could wait until after the elections on November 5 and then pardon Menendez or commute his sentence. What would Joe have to lose at that point? He's also promised repeatedly that he would "never" pardon Hunter, but does anyone honestly believe that line either? Like so many presidents before him, we should probably expect to see a flurry of pardons coming off of Biden's desk in the final weeks and days before the next inauguration. It won't be at all surprising if a number of those pardons include the name "Biden" or the names of his former business associates from Biden Inc. who could still cause unpleasantness for the family if they start flapping their gums next year.

Joe Biden's legacy is already established and his name will forever be associated with Burisma, shady business dealings, and huge amounts of untraceable money that somehow found its way into the coffers of a humble politician from Delaware. But it doesn't sound like it will impact him very much if at all. He'll still get to ride off into the sunset and settle down in his luxurious beachfront mansions. How much damage could one more pardon for a corrupt Democratic official do?