The past month has not exactly been the finest hour for Congress. Sure, the institution itself has clanked along and somehow managed to avert a government shutdown. But its members have showcased a really astonishing variety of failures to conform to the most basic standards of behavior. These people seemingly don’t know how to open a door, how to speak or dress like adults, how to act in a theater, how to function as a team, how to commit crimes, or even how to tell their health is failing.
Exhibit A: Bob Menendez. The desire for a place in the history books may be a laudable one, but not when it means becoming the first senator indicted in two separate scandals. The cartoonish corruption of Menendez — bills stuffed in jackets with his name on them, gold bars with traceable serial numbers — is astounding even for the man who occupies a seat once vacated by Harrison Williams after Abscam. Menendez was googling the value of gold bars after returning from an influence-peddling trip to Egypt. He offers the totally implausible excuse that jackets full of cash is some sort of Cuban family tradition. There will always be petty crooks in Congress, but stupid and brazen ones? And yet somehow, after the feds raided Menendez’s home and found all this incriminating evidence that pointed to him selling out his country, Chuck Schumer let Menendez keep on chairing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for 15 months.
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