Robert Menendez

The story of the day is that U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) wants the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to extend the scope of Congress' probe of former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, and that the U.S. Attorney in New Jersey needs to make public the results of their subpoena of his own records during the 2006 campaign.

Menendez, the Chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, says that the House Judiciary Committee's agreement with Rove's attorneys were "limiting in nature."

"I understand that there's an investigation going on by the Justice Department and I believe that investigation needs to be vigorous and I also believe that in light of the information that's come out that maybe the Senate Judiciary Committee should be looking at a continuation of what that information reveals," Menendez told PolitickerNJ.com's Max Pizarro.

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) speaks today at Metro Park with, from left: U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park), Gov. Jon Corzine, Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood), and U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (D-Hopewell Twp.).

WOODBRIDGE - Saddled with a subpoena to nowhere - at least to date - during his 2006 U.S. Senate bid by the office of then-U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) has lived with the open-ended question mark of that probe ever since.

Now Christie is running for governor and Menendez allies say the senator has a personal stake in reelecting Gov. Jon Corzine.

Testimony this week by former George W. Bush mastermind Karl Rove that Rove had political conversations with Christie while the latter served as U.S. Attorney, intensified Menendez's own questions about whether Christie pursued him politically in that 2006 battleground campaign as a way of currying favor with Bush.

Rove said the discussions he had with Christie related to New Jersey's top cop's prospective gubernatorial aspirations, but Menendez sees deeper, more troubling implications.

Going back to January of 2006, Christie's name appeared on a federal Attorney General's list of U.S. Attorneys slated for firing, then came off the list after information leaked in the middle of a contentious U.S. Senate campaign that Christie was probing Menendez.

Despite campaign time headlines about the U.S. Attorney's Office examining the Congressman-turned Senator's rental of property to a nonprofit organization receiving federal funds, Menendez defeated state Sen. Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield).

But with the subpoena back story unresolved and Christie beating incumbent Democratic Gov. Corzine by nine points 81 days until Election Day, Menendez now wants a stepped-up Congressional counter probe of how Bush's AG Office and U.S. Attorney's offices such as Christie's administered justice.  

"Clearly the Rove information under oath creates very serious concerns about the political process that took place at the Justice Department and U.S. Attorneys offices across the country and the effect upon those U.S. Attorneys offices," the senator said today after appearing with Gov. Jon Corzine, U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) and U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood at Metro Park to celebrate the state's receipt of a $298.7 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Transit Capital Grant from the feds.

New Jerseyans may not approve of the way Gov. Jon Corzine is doing his job, but they continue to like the state's two United States Senators, according to the Quinnipiac University poll.

Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) has a 45%-38% job approval rating, although he is upside-down (36%-50%) among independents. He was at 43%-40% one month ago.  Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) has a job approval rating of 39%-38%, and is also upside-down among independents (34%-39%).  Menendez was at 40%-37% in July.

U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) today in Parsippany.

PARSIPPANY - Not street enough.

It's a common Democratic Party complaint leveled at Gov. Jon Corzine.

But in a rally flag speech at the Morris County Democratic Committee's picnic here this afternoon, guest U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson), a crusty former Paterson mayor who kicks off many of his public remarks with the tagline, "Once a mayor, always a mayor," said it's time for party members nursing dreams of an operator governor to get over any personality resistance they have to Corzine.

"I think we have a shot here," Pascrell told an outdoor crowd quietly wolfing hamburbers in a gazebo at Lake Parsipanny Park. "One thing you know about Gov. Corzine is with him in Trenton you have an honest governor. This is a governor who cut the state budget to make it smaller by $1.5 billion than when he first raised his hand as governor.

"He may not be Mr. warmth to you," the congressman added, "but I want someone in Trenton who's going to tell the truth. ...Jon Corzine is one of us. We prayed for him when he was in that accident. He needs us. He needs us to do more than pray. He needs us to go the extra mile for him."

Both of New Jersey's Democratic U.S. Senators have taken a slight dip in the job approval ratings since last month, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released today.

Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) is at 43%-40% among likely voters and 42%-39% among registered voters; he was at 44%-36% in June and at 46%-37% in May. Among Independents, Lautenberg is upside-down at 39%-47%.

Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) has a 40%-37% approval rating among likely voters, and at 39%-37% among registered voters.  He was at 40%-31% in June and 41%-32% in May, among registered voters.  Among Independents, Menendez is upside-down 34%-43%.

In 1990, after then-Gov. Jim Florio raised taxes by $2.4 billion, popular Democratic U.S. Senator Bill Bradley also took a hit with voters: he won re-election with just 50.4% of the vote. 

If Gov. Jon Corzine picks TV reality star Randal Pinkett as the Democratic candidate for Lt. Governor, Pinkett will become the first African American to run statewide as a major party candidate in New Jersey.  Newark Mayor Kenneth Gibson sought the Democratic nomination for Governor in 1981 and 1985 without success.

The first Latino to run statewide was Robert Menendez, who was elected to the United States Senate in 2006.  Corzine would get credit for advancing the candidacies of two minority candidates; he appointed Menendez to his Senate seat after his election as Governor in 2005.

But the selection of Dr. Pinkett would mean the rejection of two women reportedly on the short list for LG: State Senators Barbara Buono (D-Metuchen) and Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck).  New Jersey Democrats have not nominated a woman for statewide office since they picked 32-year-old Thelma Parkinson to run for a two-month unexpired term in the U.S. Senate in 1930.  She lost to Republican Dwight Morrow (Charles Lindbergh's father-in-law) by a 59%-39% margin.

PASSAIC - Standing in the midst of a melting pot audience, with Latinos, Jews and African Americans dominant in a crowd that also contained a smattering of Italians and Indians, and probably sprinklings of just about everything else given Passaic and Passaic pride, School Board member Salim Patel requested a hand for the first Dominican-American mayor in the United States.

There was clapping.

Then Mayor Alex Blanco stood, and the School No. 6 auditorium erupted.

As usual at these big ticket events here in Passaic, the mayor had top-tier love in the room in the form of Gov. Jon Corzine and U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken), who both backed Blanco for mayor earlier this year.  

"If you truly love Passaic, you must help him succeed, because in his success, the people of Passaic succeed," Menendez said.

Child of immigrant parents Blanco went to the podium early, but not before Menendez spoke, wringing a laugh-line out of a setup created by the cheering section for Councilman-elect Terrance L. Love, the governing body's lone black. 

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken), right, and Passaic Mayor Alex Blanco

Gov. Jon Corzine is scheduled tomorrow to swear-in Passaic Mayor Alex Blanco as the first Dominican-American elected to a full term as a mayor in the United States.

Blanco last year won a special election in Passaic to succeed jailed former Mayor Sammy Rivera.

In May, he again defeated city supervisor Vincent Capuana to earn a four-year term.

Also scheduled to attend tomorrow's ceremony in Passaic is U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken), who was the featured speaker at Blanco's kick-off in April.

Hal Turner, a North Bergen resident who was arrested today on charges that he advocated the assasination of three federal judges.

Hal Turner, a internet radio talk show host who ran Pat Buchanan's 1996 presidential campaign in New Jersey and then sought the Republican nomination for Congress in 2000, was arrested at his North Bergen home today on charges that he threatened the assault and murder of three federal judges in internet postings that criticized a recent court ruling upholding handgun bans in Chicago.

Turner allegedly posted on his website that "let me be the first to say this plainly: These Judges (Frank Easterbrook, Richard Posner and William Bauer of the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals) deserve to be killed."  According to the complaint, Turner posted "photographs, phone numbers, work address and room numbers of these judges, along with a photo of the building in which they work and a map of its location."

 "We take threats to federal judges very seriously.  Period," said Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

Turner finished third in his congressional bid, winning 19% of the vote against Theresa DeLeon, who went on to lose the general election to Democrat Robert Menendez in the Hudson County-based 13th district.