Bob Menendez Blocks Obama Judicial Appointee? What's The Catch?

Why would a good little liberal like Bob Menendez (D-La Raza) block a nice Jewish Jersey girl's chance to be appointed to United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit? Especially when U.S. Magistrate Patty Shwartz was nominated by lefty godhead Barack Hussein Obama?

Bob Menendez has on occasion done the right thing for the wrong reasons. But Menendez (D-Illegal Immigrants) has only one motivation to block this innocuous appointment.

Vengeance.

  Welcome back to Dirty Jersey:

Menendez doesn’t have the guts to say why he is using a federal form of senatorial courtesy. But, here’s a clue: She worked in the U.S. Attorney’s office from 1989 through 2003 — including two stints as chief of the criminal division. Her former boss, Chris Christie, endorsed her. She was close to assistant U.S. Attorney James Nobile who oversaw an investigation of a local charity with ties to Menendez.

[Sidebar:  Menendez was cleared of all wrongdoing, after Christie left the Attorney's office, by his replacement, one Paul Fishman. Menendez supported Fishman for the job, by the way. In private practice Fishman represented Jon Corzine’s gal pal/union queenpin Carla Katz, as well as developer Encap Golf Holdings, both of whom also were investigated by Christie's office. Upon taking the U.S. Attorney's job, Fishman declared there was no "culture of corruption in New Jersey, and that it was "demoralizing" to even say such a thing. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, including Chris Christie's 200-0 record convicting public figures of misdeeds while he was New Jersey's US Attorney...]

Normally this would again be a case of Menedez doing the right thing - blocking an Obama appointee - for the wrong reasons.  But Shwartz checks out OK, maybe the best you can hope for from the current administration. And one would think that having a local girl, and a Rutgers alum, moving up the judicial ranks could only be a good thing for New Jersey.

Well, it might be. But Senator Menendez has his own personal pique to look out for, first and foremost. Vengeance must be served on Chris Christie, even if it is via an innocent woman. Then he'll move on the serving the people of New Jersey, eventually...depending on their skin color and ethnic heritage, of course.

And as a secondary benefit to Menendez, it puts all current employees of Justice on notice:  If you want a career path, don't you dare delve into the corruption of liberal Democrats.  Just look the other way, and sue big corporations for hefty settlements that can be disbursed to my friends and allies...


UPDATE:  Even the New York Times is a bit stunned by the audacity here:

...the connection has led lawyers and judges in the state to speculate that Mr. Menendez is acting out of resentment, rather than any concern about Judge Shwartz’s qualifications.

“Every lawyer in the world will tell you that she’s extraordinarily qualified, a decent person and an excellent judge, and would be an asset to the circuit,” said Tom Curtin, the chairman of the lawyers’ advisory committee for the United States District Court for New Jersey. “This was going to be words and music for her, then something happened.”