Brilliant tactic. NOT!! And this is the clown who's replacing Schumer as head of the DSCC? Looks like we might not get to 60 in 2010 after all.

Here's a novel thought: Try winning your arguments on their merits, Sen. Menendez.

I swear, I hate many of the Senate Dems almost as much as I hate the Senate Republicans.

Menendez doesn't realize its 2009, not 1962.

and this fool is my senator.

these people are so self-important it makes you sick to your stomach.

A perfect confluence, Menendez wants attention, and he needs attention. He just fails to realize that the attention he gets likely will not be what he wants.

How much of this sort of thing do people need to see before everyone realizes that the Senate needs to get rid of its archaic, anti-democratic customs and start operating the way a legislative body in a democracy should?

Is Menendez old enough to remember Batista, or did his daddy tell him the stories? Golly, remember that night all the rich old Cubans fled, the rum warehouses were emptied, and they tried to keep the music playing? Menendez is just a romantic - somebody forgot to tell Jersey!

Just curious, why Wyden's pic? I was going to get mad at my Sen for no reason.

While I disagree with Sen. Menendez, you're all lacking some important context.

After the 1959 revolution, the second-largest Cuban emigre community in the U.S. formed in Union City, N.J., second in size only to Miami. I have read that Union City, because of its small size, in the 1960s actually had more Cubans per square mile than Havana. In the following decades the Cuban population dispersed throughout northern New Jersey, but the Cuban flag is still a familiar sight in Union City, and one could fairly say Castro is persona non grata in the city. While I can't say N.J. Cubans are more anti-Castro than Florida Cubans, polling data from Florida doesn't really shed much light on what motivates the Senator from N.J.

Sen. Menendez, whose parents were born in Cuba, started his political career in Union City and served as mayor there before becoming a Congressman. Menendez's base is the huge Latino population in Hudson, Bergen, Union and Passaic counties. Therefore, it is at least somewhat likely Menendez is actually responding to legitimate constituent concerns, rather than simply grandstanding on an easy issue.

Again, I think the Cuba embargo is rather a stupid policy, but Sen. Menendez comes to the issue with experience and interested consituents.

As for Menendez running the DSCC: if you can raise enough money to run for Senate in NJ, you can raise enough money to run for Senate anywhere. Also, this guy is old-school. If you're concerned about clean elections, you'd be right to oppose Bob Menendez; if you're concerned about beating the other guy, Bob's your man.

America wants Israel and Palestine to find peace, Sunni and Shia to find peace, North Korea to come in out of the Cold and yet they're still fighting a battle with little Cuba that doesn't trace back centuries.

Who cares what the pampered, spoiled, catered to lunatic Cuban-Americans think or want?
They just had one of their insane tantrums and protested the King of Spain. Why? Because he criticized Hugo Chavez and failed to critcize Castro while he was at it. Therefore he must be pro-Castro. These people are crazy!
Menendez is a disgrace. He should be denied any leadership post and challenged by a quality opponent in his primary.

Remember how we "opened up" relations with the Soviet Union, in order to start building bridges that might eventually lead to the fall of their regime?

Remember how we "opened up" relations with China, in order to start building bridges that might lead to the end of the repressive conditions that existed under Maoism?

How did that work out? Not perfectly - neither Russia nor China are model democracies - but certainly better than the alternative. We now have cordial political relations and thriving economic relations with both countries. Their people are much better off as a result, and the threat of war in the world is greatly reduced.

With Cuba, on the other hand, we maintain a bizarre fantasy that the only way to "win" is to give the island the silent treatment until the regime is forced to kowtow to our superior ways. Meanwhile, the Cuban government has had 50 years to adjust to life without the US, and they know they can feed and care for themselves as long as they wish. If we want economic and political freedom in Cuba, the logical way forward would be to pursue the same openness that worked with China and the USSR. Let our people go to Cuba, spend money there, bring newspapers and consumer goods and cultural exchanges! Do that, and the regime will start to crumble in months. Follow the Menendez path, and we'll still be having this ridiculous debate on the 100th anniversary of the revolution.

Menandez is during this to get the word out to his Cuban constituents that he oppose the release on the Cuban embargo. He will go along in the end. It is the way the game is played. His vote may not be needed to get the bill passed.

You see they preferred Batista's dictatorship to Castro's because Batista "played ball" and gave American gangster's, (and the elite class), a place to party.