I posted something to Blue Jersey about Bob Menendez’s candidacy (I refer to a post I made here the other day) and received some response — mostly from Democrats defending what has been a rather dismal Menendez campaign. I post it here because the responses represent something I feel is indicative of the dysfunctional nature of our politics these days — the unwillingness to accept criticism and lockstep partisanship that leaves too many of us (progressives and conservatives) defending politicians and policies we otherwise would find repugnant.
I don’t want to imply that I find Bob Menendez repugnant — I like some of what he has done, especially his vote on Iraq and his defense of Social Security and I am planning to vote for him — but he has run a terrible campaign and may not have been the best candidate to replace John Corzine in the Senate.
That I criticize him does not mean I am supporting Tom Kean; my criticism has nothing to do with my vote.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
Hank Kalet 
I read the comments and I don\’t think they were, with one exception, terribly critical of your remarks. Mostly they expressed, if you read between the lines, a concern for the outcome of the race. They were partisan, sure, but you have to expect that at Bluejersey. The site has been exceptionally supportive of the Menendez campaign. I don\’t think your criticism was unfounded.There are two points I would like to make. First, I don\’t know how familiar you are with Bluejersey int he past. That is, I don\’t know how far back your involvement with the web site goes. I can see your ID there was created on September 17, so you may be fairly new to the site. Last, when was it, Februrary maybe, when Corzine was finalizing his decision on who to appoint to the Senate seat, Bluejersey\’s front page bloggers were largely very vocal in their support for Gill and their opposition to Menendez, so much so that Menendez.s press guy felt obliged to post there in defense of is boss. So the folks who go there, as well as the front pageers, are well aware of Menendez\’s shortcomings, but they have put their energy into supporting Menendez now that he is in office and they are committed to regime change in Congress, so you get the reaction that you got.The second point is that Menendez\’s ability to raise money was not the only factor in his appointment. Codey was considered but seemed reserved about such an appointment. He would have been a popular choice. Another factor is the safety of the congressional district when choosing from among our seven Democratic congressmembers. There is no question that Menendez had the safest district and that New Jersey could count on not losing a seat in the House if Menendez was appointed to the Senate. Which brings another factor to the front. In any election, as you probably know, you count the sure votes first, then you play for the ones you think you can swing your way. If the race is going to be close, you generally are trying to pull in no more than five percent of the undecided, independent voters, and you aim at the issues that you think will pull that five percent in. So the best thing to do is to have a decent base that you can count on for votes before you even start to look for additional voters. Again, Menendez\’s congressional district gave him a large amount of certain votes. When you consider the political factors, it wasn\’t a bad decision at all to appoint Menendez. When you consider the fund-raising, Menendez definitely had an advantage. I wouldn\’t be surprised if there weren\’t other factors that I haven\’t considered.Now Gill would have been the choice for liberals looking, among other things, to increase representation by women and minorities in the House, and she is a more than capable legislator with excellent qualifications. As I said, Bluejersey pushed her hard. But it was a real question mark whether she could raise money or whether she had much in the way of a nase of support, an already established constituency upon which she could draw. Menendez\’s negatives have hurt him, certainly, but whose to say that he won\’t win it in the end because he is the only candidate who could have done so?