Tea Party Wants To Recall Bob Menendez Over Health Care, Big Government

AP -- A coalition of conservative activists known as the Tea Party movement want to thrown Sen. Robert Menendez out of office, but a look at judicial precedent shows they face an uphill battle.

New Jersey is one of 18 states that allow voters to recall statewide elected officials. A week after then-Gov. Christie Whitman signed the 1995 law, a U.S. Supreme Court decision softened it.

Writing for the majority, Justice John Paul Stevens said at the time that a state cannot meddle with provisions of the U.S. Constitution detailing how congressional members are qualified and selected.

Frank Askin of the Rutgers Constitutional Litigation Clinic said he can't recall a case that tested the Supreme Court decision. There is no right to recall congressmen or senators under the U.S. Constitution, experts said.

Tea Party members are suing in New Jersey Superior Court, asking to be allowed to start collecting the 1.3 million voter signatures they need to get a recall on the ballot. Oral arguments are set for Feb. 26.

The Sussex County group takes issue with support by Menendez, a Democrat, of health care reform and his opposition to limiting government's control.

Their lawyer, Dan Silberstein, said the group went to court after the secretary of state failed to certify its petition.

The secretary of state's office referred questions to the attorney general, which didn't respond to a call seeking comment.

Comments

[saneinthenuthouse]

09:01 AM on 03/06/2010

Does that mean we can recall Christie?

[Cuban Refugee]

11:31 PM on 02/13/2010

As a resident of Northern New Jersey, it would be my honor to collect signatures to remove from office a fellow Cuban who dishonored his countrymen through his words and actions by becoming a shill for the communist ideology that caused our exile.

[saneinthenuthouse]

08:40 AM on 03/06/2010

I am married to a Cuban and you are out of your mind. You are disrespecting the brave Cuban bloggers who are being jailed and beaten and murdered in Cuba as we speak. Menendez is not a communist and neither is Obama. Menendez was sent to the Senate by a Constitutionally legal election by the citizens of NJ and to try to recall him because you do not like his opinions is EXACTLY what the Castro brothers would do in Cuba. Who is the communist? It sounds like you are!

[MissingAmerica]

09:37 AM on 02/08/2010

Can someone tell me why they are concerned about "big government" when it is actually all the same, number-wise? They take him out, another is put in? Healthcare? It is the GOP that are preventing any progress. The ridiculous time-consuming actions of these people are only impeding the progress they say they want. Time to come up with a sane, sound, intelligent and workable answer, and these so called "tea parties" are nothing more than a gimick with no purpose other than to spread ignorance and incite anger, and aren't violence and anger what got us here? Seems to me they need to study up on the meaning of "counter-productive"!

[AtheistMaximus]

09:49 AM on 02/08/2010

Unfortunately it is the American way. And this cycle of ignorance will repeat itself. I feel the (D)'s. should just drop out all around, and let the (R)'s take over. That way when the country is in 10x worse shape than it was, they won't know who to blame. Or they will just keep blaming Obama Even in 2028, everything that has gone wrong in the history of the entire world will be Obama's fault.
And these are the very same people who tell us to stop blaming the guy who actually ruined things.
It's a crazy world we live in.

[PostModernPatriot]

10:45 AM on 02/08/2010

Because "big government" is a code word for : government telling them they can't discriminate against non-whites in employment and housing, government asking them to pay taxes for services that are for the common good like schools, road repair, fire protection etc etc, government providing social services that are used by immigrant and non-white populations....

That's the big govt that the tea partiers are against.

The "big governement" that creates a huge military industrial complex, that leads us into a war that lasts nine years with no end in sight, that spies on our cell phone calls and internet usage, that wages a "drug war" against its youth, that imprisons far more people than any other nation on the planet....THAT big government they have noooooo problem with.

[windup]

09:29 AM on 02/08/2010

Anyone attacked by the crazy teabaggers should be voted back in. Make an effort to get out on election day to vote for everyone they don't want, and we'll get a better government for sure.

[iluvsam]

08:49 AM on 02/08/2010

I wish we could recall Lieberman.

[Peter007]

12:12 PM on 02/07/2010

Menendez is a Hudson county political boss who got to be Senator because he was appointed by Corzine. He's a product of the Hudson county political machine. He acts like a mob boss most of the time.

[jwoww]

09:03 AM on 02/08/2010

AMEN!

[jerryatthebeach]

08:09 AM on 02/07/2010

Charlie Crist, the Republican Gov. of my home stata Florida needs to be looked at also by the TEA PARTY, oh and hes even a Republican. Marco Rubio is running for our Senate seat and I'm predicting he'll win.

[BPCentrisAmerican]

10:54 AM on 02/08/2010

Marco Rubio is a right wing Cuban like the many Cubans I grew up knowing in NJ, these clowns will never get over the Bay of Pigs and going back to Cuba someday, which is there whole motivation in life, the orginal group who came over in the early 60's refused to learn English, which really pissed my parents off. I wish they would go back to Cuba, where they really want to be, becasue they don't want to be here.

[1088]

02:59 AM on 02/07/2010

Are the Democrats going to sit on the sideline and watch too?

[dmann32]

02:00 AM on 02/07/2010

Ok This is NOT happening! NOT in my back yard! these Tea Baggers need to be stopped. They are making a mockery of our political system . . .!!!

[jwoww]

09:09 AM on 02/08/2010

the free ride is over in NJ

[AtheistMaximus]

09:51 AM on 02/08/2010

Well, with your new Republican Governor I'm sure he's bringing them in by the bus loads.
What happened over their?

[dmann32]

10:14 AM on 02/08/2010

what might happen in November if we don't 'hold our noses' and show up at the polls: Democrats were pissed off and stayed home, the crazies and tea baggers & KKK Nut jobs showed up 90% plus . . .! We need to get off our @#$$ and go vote or else it'll get worse . . .!

[BPCentrisAmerican]

11:05 AM on 02/08/2010

Christie ran away from the tea baggers as fast as he could, in the debates he offered nothing but the usual Republican mantra, and he''s already thinking raising the gasoline tax in NJ and placing tolls on 287 and 78 non toll roads which the right wingers use to commute form there house farms in Hunterdon county.

[HST]

09:39 PM on 02/06/2010

The tea baggers also want to dress up in costumes and attached tea bags to their clothes.

They should be satisfied with that.

[AtheistMaximus]

09:55 AM on 02/08/2010

In college their was a lot of teabagging, but it was usually when someone passed out early.
These guys can teabag all day, putting most of America's phrats to shame.

[alexunlv]

07:22 PM on 02/06/2010

Teabaggers are not interested in dialogue. They are interested in forcing their way into government control. You can try to have an exchange with these lowlives, but you will get no where. They are traitors and seek a rebel cause. No different than the traitors who started the civil war.

[blacktea]

03:40 PM on 02/06/2010

you bring the tar, I'll bring the feathers.

[Gidster]

07:07 PM on 02/06/2010

Spoken like a true thug

[WeCanDoMore]

03:32 PM on 02/06/2010

I assume this is the fake tea parities, the freedom works funded group who are really a paid for cover for corporate interests.

Anyone who is truly concerned about rampant big government overtaking the power of the individual citizen would be anti Repug, as they are the front for the corporate takeover of our democracy and put the never ending spin on O's agenda, which if it actually proceeeded will be shown to actually will help 99% of us.

This is just a ploy by the corporatists to get rid of a Dem senator.

[Peter007]

12:09 PM on 02/07/2010

All you are doing is throwing crap up on the wall and hoping some of it sticks. Hint..nothing is sticking. You writings are like graffiti on subway walls.
Corporate interests? really? What corporation ?

[WeCanDoMore]

12:47 PM on 02/07/2010

You could not be more wrong. It is staggering to know there are really people out there who 1) Don't know they are being manipulated, and 2) have no idea who is behind the efforts to take over the tea partiers and make them part of the repub agenda, which is, obviously, corporate dollar power over individual voters, for the soloe purpose of greater $ for the uber wealthy. It's the health insurance giants, AGI, big bankers . . . often with a cover of religion, a la C Street, or just general propaganda deluge of mis-information and voter manipulation, Get informed, and open your eyes. You are doing a disservice to democracy and everyone who has worked since the inception of our great country to protect it.

May I ask if you will honestly disclose where you stand and why?

[AtheistMaximus]

12:19 PM on 02/08/2010

Carlyle, Monsanto, Viacom, B of A, Exxon, Haliburton, Blackwater, Phrma, and the list goes on. I think most of that cr@p is stuck in your eye, it seems you have trouble seeing the very things right in front of you.

[PostModernPatriot]

10:37 AM on 02/08/2010

The tea partiers are a bunch of whiny babies here in NJ who don't want to pay property taxes to fund schools after their precious children graduate from said schools.

They wanted to live in Morris, Sussex and Upper Bergen to raise their kids, then they want to pull up the rug from anyone else who wants the same benefits they enjoyed.

Oh, and they are anti-immigration - now that Hispanics, both legal and illegal, have "infiltrated" their neighborhoods and aren't just in Hudson County anymore.

Thats why they're running for cover. Why do you think they're trying to recall Menedez and not Lautenberg? Lautenberg is a dem too.....

[BPCentrisAmerican]

11:19 AM on 02/08/2010

You forgot Hunterdon and Mercer counties, every Republican I know has fled West and South and bought houses they couldn't afford. The real CFs live in the Jackson area though. My wife's brother and sister-in-law both former Republicans who grew apart from the GOP because of Bush and the right wing take over, told me there the pet Democrats in West Windsor.

[Peter007]

11:48 AM on 02/08/2010

NJ has the highest property taxes in the Nation because the teachers pay and benefits are the highest in the Nation. $80,000 +/ year is common. for 10 months work. People are leaving the state in droves because of the high taxes. Why is the teachers Union afraid of competition ? You know why. It's because competition would do away with their high salaries and lifetime benefits. The teachers and Police Unions are going to do to NJ what the auto workers Union did to Detroit.

[rad21]

10:23 AM on 02/06/2010

But what do I know?

Much of this job-loss could have been avoided if the inevitable shrinkage of the economy was done with leadership from politicians, economists and media AND cooperation of we-the-people. However one slices the cause of the situation, the bubble burst, because govt. and and we-the-people lived / live way beyond our means.

IMO we should have contracted by asking all to share the sacrifice equally. Take a 10% pay-cut along with 10% reduction in the cost of goods and services, and a 10% cut in taxes. The White House provided an example where the President and his staff took a pay-freeze on assuming office and on their one year anniversary. Unfortunately there were several examples of workers in the public and private sector refusing this option, including a lot of grumbling from senior citizens.

Some may argue rightly, that an across-the-board 10% pay cut penalizes the lower wage workers. I would be in favor of making some adjustments. Yet without a consensus, the low-wage workers, being the lowest persons on the totem-pole (because they are newly hired) were the first to loose their jobs.

So where is the gain? Besides reducing the cost of living, stemming the job-losses, America would be more competitive across the world. But, all the 'smart minds' could do on the blogs and in media is blame the immigrants for the lay-offs.

[den1953]

03:29 PM on 02/06/2010

I thought the new Gov. new how to fix everything in Jersey?

[NJmikeV]

12:34 PM on 02/07/2010

He's starting by raiding state workers' pensions.

[jwoww]

09:08 AM on 02/08/2010

He has to overcome the 4 years of the C orslime corruption..doesnt he get to blame the past administration for leaving NJ on the brink on financial collapse as fat as cleaning house dont worry the NJEA is first on the list then on from there. Lautenberg might not last too much longer and GOP Sentor will be appointed by that time Menedez will be up for relection and the skeletons will be coming out of the closet big time especially after the big raids in Husdon Cty this past summer.

[Richter]

09:29 AM on 02/06/2010

Further proof -- not that it is needed after Tancredo's speech -- that the Teabaggers are racists to the core.

[DUSAA-1775]

10:34 AM on 02/06/2010

wow! you have proof that the Tea Party is racist to the core?? Now you really can not label the desire for less taxes and smaller government as racist, so by all means, please expound and enlighten.

[RJPasadena]

11:43 AM on 02/06/2010

Teabagger's are racist because they only started complaining about taxes (they all got a TAX CUT) and deficits when Obama was elected. They did not care about two wars, huge tax cuts for the wealthy, and all the debt and pork the GOP spent in the past eight years.

[wgb]

12:13 PM on 02/06/2010

Can you explain how tax cuts are going to help the economy? About .25 of the $1.3 trillion standing deficit GWB left was due to 2 wars and not paying. Wouldn't tax cuts just increase the deficit? Currently if you look at the Federal Tax rates for 2009 they are less then 2008 - no taxes were raise. Shouldn't jobs be the first concern?

[jwoww]

09:10 AM on 02/08/2010

progressive dont realize a big protion of the tea party voted for Obama and have been longtime conservatives democrats. They are stuck in their little world that dem thinks like they do.

[BPCentrisAmerican]

01:43 PM on 02/08/2010

If you mean Reagan Democrats, there racist.