Sen. Bob Menendez (N.J.) remains on a collision course with the White House over its Cuba policy, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chairman appears committed to butt heads not just with President Barack Obama but also with powerful Democratic Senators.
It’s an unusual position for an otherwise loyal party player who is trying to guide Senate Democrats to another banner election year in 2010. But both his fellow Democratic leaders as well as candidates whom he will be promoting say they don’t expect the rift with Obama to affect Menendez’s effectiveness as the DSCC chairman.
“In terms of his role at the DSCC, he is maintaining a breakneck schedule to raise the money, recruit the candidates, and we are excited about his leadership,” Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said.
Durbin said Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and other leaders understand that the issue is personal for the Cuban-American Menendez. A bipartisan group of Senators is continuing the push to ease travel and trade restrictions to Cuba, which Menendez adamantly opposes.
“There’s bound to be times when individual Democratic Senators don’t agree with President Obama or Durbin or Reid or whoever it might be. But we don’t expect 100 percent allegiance here,” said Durbin, who supports a change in U.S.-Cuba policy.
Despite a news report suggesting that Menendez’s hard line against Cuba might prevent him from aiding in the re-election of Senators opposed to him, Sen. Chris Dodd (Conn.), one of the Democrats’ most vulnerable incumbents in 2010, said that is certainly not the case when it comes to his campaign.
“I don’t know where that came from at all. I don’t feel that way at all,” said Dodd, who supports easing travel restrictions to Cuba but opposes ending the trade embargo.
Dodd added that Menendez has “been tremendously helpful already. And the differences [on Cuba] are not that substantial ... We’ve met and talked about my campaign and things going on.”
Still, Menendez’s stance angered many of his colleagues and the White House — including powerful Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel — when he threatened last month to vote against an omnibus bill funding the federal government for fiscal 2009 because it eased some travel restrictions for Cuban-Americans. Though he was not the decisive vote because a handful of Republicans were needed for passage anyway, Menendez’s gambit was seen by Obama officials and some rank-and-file Democrats as a political no-no for a party leader.
Menendez also held up two Obama nominees in order to win concessions from the White House on Cuba policy. During the omnibus debate, he — along with Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) — eventually got a letter from the Treasury Department promising to narrowly interpret the language in the bill.
Since the flap, Menendez has been loath to talk about the issue given the focus on whether his Cuba stand is affecting his DSCC duties or his coveted seat at the Democratic leadership table.
“I already addressed these issues extensively with various press outlets, including Roll Call. There’s nothing new and nothing more to discuss on it. We’re having some big successes at the DSCC and here in the Senate, and that’s what I’m focused on,” Menendez said in a statement.
Rep. Bill Cassidy has his blood drawn by Alesha Barbour during a free hepatitis screening in the Rayburn House Office Building hosted by the Congressional Viral Hepatitis Caucus to recognize "National Viral Hepatitis Testing Day."
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