Menendez: He Has Risen Despite Defying Alliances
2006-10-27
Source: Hispanic Business
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rss feedTom Petty's hit song "I Won't Back Down" blared over the speakers for a few seconds before Democratic U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez took the stage at Rutgers University's campus in New Brunswick, N.J.
"Hey, baby, there ain't no easy way out.
Hey, I will stand my ground,
And I won't back down."
With his opponent questioning his ethics almost daily, Menendez was in a won't-back-down mode. He wasn't long into his stump speech against the Iraq war before a self-described concerned citizen from New York confronted him.
"Go, Bob, go!" Chris Thieme yelled. "Go to "jail!"
The senator did not back down.
"No matter how much heckling there is," he boomed, "the bottom line is Karl Rove outed a CIA agent."
The heckler got louder. Menendez countered: How about those Scarlet Knights? The cheer for the unbeaten, nationally ranked football team drowned out the man.
It was a genuine Menendez moment. He was engaged in battle, taking it and giving it right back.
Menendez, 52, is a fighter. He learned politics in Hudson County - the iron maiden of Jersey politics. One of his first lessons was discovering that his mentor, former Union City Mayor William V. Musto, was a crook, and he helped send Musto to jail - testifying in the kickback trial even though he had to wear a bulletproof vest because of threats to his life.
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