The Other McCain

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Sources Tell Washington Post FBI Can’t Find Menendez’s Dominican Hookers

Posted on | February 16, 2013 | 58 Comments

There’s a good news/bad news factor here. The good news is, the Washington Post can’t keep ignoring or downplaying the allegations:

A team of FBI agents has been conducting interviews in recent weeks in the Dominican Republic and the United States, looking into allegations that Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) patronized prostitutes in the Caribbean nation, but has found no evidence to support the claim, according to two people familiar with the investigation.
One person said agents have asked about whether a Florida eye doctor — a close friend and major campaign donor to Menendez — provided the senator with prostitutes on vacations there. Another person said investigators are looking into allegations involving underage prostitutes and sex parties.
The two, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an active investigation, said FBI agents are following leads provided by an unknown tipster. In a series of e-mails with the FBI, the tipster alleged that the doctor, Salomon Melgen, had made prostitutes available to Menendez while he was staying at his friend’s resort home in the Dominican Republic. The tipster, in particular, mentioned young prostitutes and prostitution parties.

As I say, the mere fact that the Washington Post decided to report this aspect of the Menendez investigation is good news, and we have to be grateful for that, having previously whacked them over the head for trying to downplay the sex-scandal angle.

The bad news is that the Post’s sources are saying that the feds haven’t been able to verify these allegations, which raises a couple of questions:

  1. Who are the Post‘s sources? Are these career law-enforcement personnel at the FBI or — as I am tempted to think — are these Obama’s political appointees at the Department of Justice, who certainly have an obvious motive for wanting to throw cold water on any suspicions that a top Democrat has been banging hookers in a Caribbean island resort?
  2. Why can’t the Post be bothered to do any investigating of its own? Forget partisan bias and just think what a huge story this could be: Top senator on the Foreign Relations Committee partying down with jailbait prostitutes in the seaside resort mansion owned by his shady Florida contributor? There’s got to be at least a book contract, and maybe a major motion picture deal, for the journalist who can get the scoop on a juicy scandal like that. And if you’re a reporter for the Washington Post, would you rather be stuck inside a fluorescent-lit office in D.C., or flying off at company expense to the Dominican Republic to interview prostitutes? Did I mention prostitution is legal in the Dominican Republic?

If I were a young reporter, I’d be begging for an assignment like that. Hell, if I thought The American Spectator would foot the bill for such an expedition, I’d already be relaxing in the warm tropical sunshine, headquartered at the poolside bar of the Renaissance Hotel . . .

But no, Wlady Pleszczynski would never approve such a project, and who can blame him? I got into enough trouble just covering the presidential campaign stateside. The prospect of me running amok on some bizarre gonzo trip to Santo Domingo would be a nightmare.

So I’m going to have to take a pass on this story, but what’s stopping the Washington Post from flying a couple of would-be Woodward and Bernstein types down to the Dominican Republic?

If Bob Menendez was a Republican senator, you can damn well bet the Post would spare no expense to uncover the truth. They’d interview every call girl, street-walker and “escort” on the island before they quit. Instead, they’re willing to accept the word of a couple of Justice Department sources that there’s nothing to those allegations of Menendez cavorting with teenage hookers at Casa de Campo? Would Ben Bradlee have been satisfied with John Mitchell telling him that all this talk about Gordon Liddy and Howard Hunt was mere innocent hijinks?

Times change. Back in the day, the Washington Post exposed corrupt cover-ups. Nowadays, they’re active participants in the cover-up. Meanwhile, the guy who originally broke the story, Matthew Boyle continues covering the Menendez scandal at Breitbart.com:

Well, the truth will come out eventually, and when it does, I strongly suspect some of these mainstream journalists who are still sneering at the prostitution angle in the Menendez story will owe Matthew Boyle a huge apology for doubting his reporting.

UPDATE: Suppose that you were an embattled senator trying to survive a scandal involving an FBI investigation. Wouldn’t you think it a clever move to hire Matt Miller, former spokesman for Attorney General Eric Holder to help you navigate the controversy? And if such an aforesaid embattled senator hired a guy so closely connected to the head of the Justice Department, wouldn’t a skeptical reporter be rather suspicious of being contacted by Justice Department sources eager to confide — on the basis of anonymity — that the FBI investigation of the embattled senator hadn’t turned up any real evidence?

Is the Washington Post being disingenuous here? Do they really think we’re too stupid to figure out that their “reporting” is actually part of the Menendez/Miller narrative-management strategy?

Well, the Post is probably too busy covering other scandals . . .

(Hat-tip: Roger W. King on Twitter.)

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Category: Corruption, Crime, Democrats, Dominican Republic, Media Bias, New Jersey

Comments

58 Responses to “Sources Tell Washington Post FBI Can’t Find Menendez’s Dominican Hookers”

  1. Adjoran
    February 16th, 2013 @ 3:19 pm

    They should call in the Secret Service. Motto: “We always get our hookers!”

  2. PDMacGuire
    February 16th, 2013 @ 3:24 pm

    @smitty_one_each At this point, you’d probably need a shovel.

  3. Chris Wysocki
    February 16th, 2013 @ 3:32 pm

    I guess spending a winter week on a tropical island interviewing hookers really isn’t as much fun as sifting through Sarah Palin’s trash way up Alaska way. Who knew?

  4. FenelonSpoke
    February 16th, 2013 @ 3:56 pm

    Menendez will skate. Too many Democrats will give him a pass, the corrupt, immoral creep.

  5. DaveO
    February 16th, 2013 @ 4:01 pm

    It is blackmail and Senator Menendez is whomever’s bitch. And if the rumours are true about the little boys – Senator Menendez is whomever’s Bitch 4 Life.

  6. robertstacymccain
    February 16th, 2013 @ 4:09 pm

    Right. A major New York publisher gave Joe McGinniss a lucrative book contract to move in next door to the former governor of Alaska and spend months digging up every salacious second-hand rumor told by partisan Democrats and disgruntled Republicans in Anchorage, Juneau and Wasilla. Meanwhile, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is regularly accepting private jet trips down to a Caribbean resort in a country where prostitution is legal and that’s not a real scandal.

  7. Becca Lower
    February 16th, 2013 @ 5:14 pm

    Professor Reynolds fixed your typo… it’s “participants”. 🙂

  8. andycanuck
    February 16th, 2013 @ 5:35 pm

    You misunderstand, Robert. When the WaPo says he was patronizing underage hookers they meant he was mocking them for not having been to an Ivy League school!

  9. BLBeamer
    February 16th, 2013 @ 5:36 pm

    “Well, the truth will come out eventually, and when it does, I strongly
    suspect some of these mainstream journalists who are still sneering at
    the prostitution angle in the Menendez story will owe Matthew Boyle a
    huge apology for doubting his reporting.”

    Maybe so, but owing an apology and actually apologizing are two very different things. They will never apologize, nor will they admit they were wrong.

  10. HWGood
    February 16th, 2013 @ 5:37 pm

    The Post is no longer part of the solution, they are part of the problem.

  11. The Rubio/Menendez Dichotomy, or One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other… | Andrew J. Patrick
    February 16th, 2013 @ 5:38 pm

    […] Stacy McCain, who’s been beating on the Menendez scandal like it owes him […]

  12. rightactions
    February 16th, 2013 @ 6:03 pm

    Remember when feminists railed against sex tourists?

  13. mattb47
    February 16th, 2013 @ 6:30 pm

    Again, it’s not so much that Menendez was flying free on a private plane to the Dominican Republic to screw underage hookers. It’s that this was a payoff to secure his vote on an extremely sketchy $500m customs contract for his ophthalmologist buddy. It’s “play” for play. He’s not just (what would otherwise be) statutory rapist scum, he’s completely corrupt statutory rapist scum.

    But Rubio drank some water during a speech!

  14. Jeff Martin
    February 16th, 2013 @ 6:48 pm

    Washington Poo to off 5% of workforce. http://m.foxbusiness.com/quickPage.html?page=19453&content=45519237&pageNum=-1 One would think if it were just unnecessary personnel there would be a zero at the end.

  15. Daredevil Vladimir Putin rides Russian Meteor and Weekend Links!
    February 16th, 2013 @ 6:54 pm

    […] at The Other McCain has up a great blog post on “Sources Tell Washington Post FBI Can’t Find Menendez’s Dominican […]

  16. Jeff Martin
    February 16th, 2013 @ 7:05 pm

    Sorry that’s 54 employees laid off. http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowldc/washington-post-layoffs-valentines-day_b96626 Its sad to lose one’s job but it doesn’t seem people are buying what they’re selling. Could also explain the lack of funds to investigate.

  17. JackLifton
    February 16th, 2013 @ 7:42 pm

    How can this Mendez person afford to hire Washington cover-up specialists? They’re a lot more expensive than Dominican hookers. I thought the senator had used more than a third of his net worth just to pay for the private plane rides. Oh, by the way, is this menedez involved in mastering the problems of our economy? These guys remind me of the sludge leaking through the walls of the cruise liner last week except that their stories don’t smell as good.

  18. Bob Belvedere
    February 16th, 2013 @ 7:43 pm

    That implies they were ever part of the solution.

  19. Bob Belvedere
    February 16th, 2013 @ 7:46 pm

    Sorry: to me the underage hooker part [and the young boy part] of this story are the most important.
    The payoffs are illegal; the hookers are immoral and vile, and bespeak of a sick, perverse mind.

  20. BLBeamer
    February 16th, 2013 @ 8:20 pm

    Actually, if they are not part of the solution, they must be part of the particulate.

  21. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    February 16th, 2013 @ 8:48 pm

    Dominican Republic, it is Vanauatu with cigars, baseball, and hookers!

  22. Sources Tell Washington Post FBI Can’t Find Menendez’s Dominican Hookers | Nice People Networking
    February 16th, 2013 @ 9:13 pm

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  23. McGehee
    February 16th, 2013 @ 9:27 pm

    If Bob Menendez was a Republican senator, you can damn well bet the Post would spare no expense to uncover the truth.

    No they wouldn’t, why would they? Instead they would report the wildest allegations as fact while demanding the Republicans prove a negative (and ignoring any exculpatory proof that might be offered).

    They’re not reporters, Stacy. They’re journolists. And that’s how journolism is practiced.

  24. Quartermaster
    February 16th, 2013 @ 9:44 pm

    “The prospect of me running amok on some bizarre gonzo trip to Santo Domingo would be a nightmare.”

    Whose nightmare might that be, Mr. Stacy? Surely not that tightwad, Pleszczynski. Methinks the DR could use a gonzo invasion.

    By the by. Belvedere’s take on the randy hispanic from NJ is on the button. Creepy and a bunch of other adjectives. I’m all for introducing him to his new roomie at the crowbar hotel, Spike.

  25. hurtin1
    February 16th, 2013 @ 10:07 pm

    “If I were a young reporter, I’d be begging for an assignment like that”

    Young reporter? What’s that?

  26. K-Bob
    February 16th, 2013 @ 10:29 pm

    I was fixin’ to type somethin’ similar, but I just knew one of you’ns guys would have gotten there already!

  27. K-Bob
    February 16th, 2013 @ 10:31 pm

    Plus, under Obamacare (and the gold-plated medical that congress members get), all of his return passengers (AKA venerial diseases) will be covered.

    So he gets a coverup, and gets coverage. Now that’s some excellent, single-payer right there.

  28. werewife
    February 16th, 2013 @ 10:40 pm

    And too many of the general public will not care, as they have been propagandized to the point that naked corruption by Democrats is acceptable as long as their personal ox is not gored – but for someone on the Right merely to make more money than they do is a threat to their very Way of Life. Sometimes I wonder if we don’t deserve to be herded like cattle.
    May I take this opportunity to point out that according to the Jewish calendar, tonight is the anniversary of the deaths of both Andrew Breitbart and Moses – and dear G-d, do we need them both now…

  29. The Osprey
    February 16th, 2013 @ 11:34 pm

    RSM in the DR? We’re talking “The Rum Diaries” redux here…

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    February 17th, 2013 @ 12:03 am

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  31. Bob Belvedere
    February 17th, 2013 @ 12:10 am

    Exactly. There are reporters and their are journalists.

  32. Bob Belvedere
    February 17th, 2013 @ 12:11 am

    Oh…it would be much, much worse, er, good.

  33. Finrod Felagund
    February 17th, 2013 @ 12:27 am

    Plus, people are more likely to pay attention to a story if it involves teenage hookers.

  34. Finrod Felagund
    February 17th, 2013 @ 12:29 am

    If I was rich enough to afford it I’d pay to send him there.

  35. Adjoran
    February 17th, 2013 @ 12:41 am

    mattb47 is exactly correct. Menendez’ private moral conduct is for his constituents to evaluate. I would hope they would be as outraged as I, but it is their call.

    However, when a public official is selling the favors of his office – in this case pressuring the State Department to pressure Dominican Republic to honor a very questionable contract by the benefactor, who had no experience, expertise, or qualification in the field – it affects every citizen. That the payment is in the form of underage prostitutes in lieu of cash is disturbing, but irrelevant to the central crime.

  36. Adjoran
    February 17th, 2013 @ 12:49 am

    And this is following successive years of losses, cuts, and layoffs already.

    It appears that even in the DC Area, many have discovered there is no value to the sort of fiction WaPo produces.

    It was written that the average Soviet citizen’s diet consisted of potatoes, vodka, and baloney. They got the potatoes from a state-controlled produce shop, the vodka from a state-controlled liquor store, and the baloney from a state-controlled newspaper.

    WaPo’s apparent business plan is to become the state-controlled newspaper for Soviet America.

  37. Wombat_socho
    February 17th, 2013 @ 12:56 am

    Would to God they would finish precipitating and fall to the bottom.

  38. Wombat_socho
    February 17th, 2013 @ 12:57 am

    If it weren’t for their Kaplan subsidiary I think they would have gone bankrupt by now.

  39. Wombat_socho
    February 17th, 2013 @ 12:58 am

    They’ll never replace the NYT in that role.

  40. K-Bob
    February 17th, 2013 @ 1:57 am

    Something to do with Stacy’s ties, I believe.

  41. K-Bob
    February 17th, 2013 @ 2:19 am

    Looks like his committee seats are all on “sub” committees. Which is odd, because they press and the “Foreign Relations” committee page claim he is the chair of that one. Looks like they managed to condemn the Norks.

    And he’s also one of the “Gang of 8” working on “Immigration.” Which means they are really working on amnesty.

  42. K-Bob
    February 17th, 2013 @ 2:22 am

    We just know there will be pictures of the hookers, eventually. (When they are old enough to be legal)

  43. FOAF
    February 17th, 2013 @ 2:49 am

    WaPo and especially NYT make Pravda look “fair and balanced”

  44. mattb47
    February 17th, 2013 @ 6:44 am

    Menendez’s sex with underage hookers was actually legal in the Dominican Republic. Immoral, but not illegal.

    The whole selling favors business, however, could lead to jail time here in the US. That’s what the FBI is investigating.

    Yes, he makes pondscum look good with the hookers, but the vote corruption is what’s going to get him potentially in jail.

  45. Esau's Message
    February 17th, 2013 @ 7:51 am

    Incriminating, not to mention revolting, photos and video?

  46. Esau's Message
    February 17th, 2013 @ 7:53 am

    I think Congress critters often find creative ways to pay these flacks through either their committee work, their own office budgets and their campaign committees. Either the public or contributors get the privilege of paying for the cover up.

  47. Esau's Message
    February 17th, 2013 @ 7:55 am

    It’s in the subcommittees, not the committees, that Congress critters pay back the quids with assorted quos.

  48. Esau's Message
    February 17th, 2013 @ 7:56 am

    And it follows the sale of the money pit Newsweek.

  49. Esau's Message
    February 17th, 2013 @ 7:58 am

    Matt Boyle writes at Breitbart that WaPo is recycling month-old reports about the FBI investigation as if they were news.

  50. richard mcenroe
    February 17th, 2013 @ 9:37 am

    Let’s see. Hookers embarass corrupt relative of powerful South American pol. Hookers suddenly can’t be found. What possible connection could there be?