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… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

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You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2012 / Worst Timed Gotcha Ever

Worst Timed Gotcha Ever

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Oh, Tucker, bless your heart:

Two women from the Dominican Republic told The Daily Caller that Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez paid them for sex earlier this year.

In interviews, the two women said they met Menendez around Easter at Casa de Campo, an expensive 7,000-acre resort in the Dominican Republic. They claimed Menendez agreed to pay them $500 for sex acts, but in the end they each received only $100.

I didn’t even know Menendez was running for re-election until I read this story, that’s how close this race is (he’s up 20 points). I couldn’t name his challenger if I was being held at gunpoint. But I love the idea of dropping this “October Surprise” right now. Half of New Jersey is under 12 inches of water, does anyone really think the residents of that state care that their single Senator had his three inches of dangling fury in a Dominican hooker six months ago? If he broke any rules or anything, that will be dealt with later, but he isn’t going to lose his election or his seat.

On a side note, for the love of everything holy, why don’t people pay their hookers in full?

Reader Interactions

137Comments

  1. 1.

    Spiffy McBang

    On a side note, for the love of everything holy, why don’t people pay their hookers in full?

    That’s really what got me. The Secret Service guys were supposed to have done the same thing, right?

    -Hookers: Yeah, fine, whatever.
    -Don’t pay the hookers as agreed: What the hell kind of person are you?

  3. 3.

    kindness

    Were they preteens or of the age of consent?

    Rush apparently likes his DR hookers to be underage as I recall.

  4. 4.

    Comrade Jake

    I just love that this hooker bombshell was dropped by The Daily Caller. Carlson is a pimp at heart.

  5. 5.

    Gin & Tonic

    I’d invite that insufferable twerp to go to Jersey in the next couple of days and share his concerns with some of Menendez’ constituents. I’m sure that wouldn’t go at all badly for him.

  6. 6.

    Professor

    You know that it’s the Daily Caller? You know that the editor-in-chief is the bow-tie white boy loser, Tucker Carlson? The Daily Caller is a scandal rag whoring for clicks!

  7. 7.

    Spiffy McBang

    @kindness: He also liked for them to be boys, just to add to the necessary hush-hush factor.

    As for Melendez, if the hookers were in any position to complain about it, that drastically ups the odds that they’re at least of consent age.

  9. 9.

    JPL

    I found this gem on the Guardian
    Trump twitter
    Obama is a terrible negotiator. He bails out Chrysler and now Chrysler wants to send all Jeep manufacturing to China–and will!

    Ceo of Chrysler twitter
    6h Ralph Gilles ‏@RalphGilles
    @realDonaldTrump you are full of shit!

    of course, you can’t see the reply on trump and Gilles apologized for his language but he is pretty fed up..

    link

  10. 10.

    The Red Pen

    On a side note, for the love of everything holy, why don’t people pay their hookers in full?

    If the Republicans were thinking clearly, they’d frame Menendez as anti-labor.

  12. 12.

    greennotGreen

    Do Dominican hookers really charge $500? That seems a bit steep (but what do I know?) How about, they said $100, but after the deed was done, said, oh no, we said $500. A vendor selling paintings in Quito tried to pull that one on me.

  13. 13.

    BGinCHI

    I’ll say this for him. When Senator Menendez goes on a fact-finding tour, he’s thorough.

    If this was 88-year-old Frank Lautenberg’s work he’d be running it on his own web site. And in Jersey his poll numbers would go up.

  15. 15.

    c u n d gulag

    Even if he was with them, why would you believe MotherTucker on what he paid the hookers?

    Do you think that if the Senator had given them $1,000, PLUS a $600 tip, that that @$$hole would report that?

  16. 16.

    hep kitty

    Oh we’ll at least he’s single and prostitution is legal in the DR. It’s not like he’s a married prolife guy who persuaded his mistress, a former patient, to have an abortion and also had at least one other dalliance with a patient what was an existing patient at the time. But apparently it’s escaped the headlines and the republican party completely. Fuck these people.

  19. 19.

    WMR

    MITT’S PENNSYLVANIA PLAY

    Mitt Headed to PA to Expand Map

    Should Democrats be worried? The state is within the margin of error after all…their possible Ohio victory may turn into a hallow one…

  22. 22.

    Capt. Seaweed

    If he broke any rules or anything, that will be dealt with later, but he isn’t going to lose his election or his seat.

    I hope not. I remember people saying no way no how it’s unthinkable that John Kerry was gonna lose against George Bush. Leave us not mess with the juju so close to Tuesday.

  27. 27.

    Comrade Dread

    On a side note, for the love of everything holy, why don’t people pay their hookers in full?

    I don’t know. Maybe they figure that since it’s far away and the women are marginalized via their (mostly) illegal occupation that they’ll be afraid to complain or talk about it.

  29. 29.

    LanceThruster

    On a side note, for the love of everything holy, why don’t people pay their hookers in full?

    And why do we have to outsource work many Americans are willing to do?

  30. 30.

    The Red Pen

    @WMR:

    Should Democrats be worried? The state is within the margin of error after all…their possible Ohio victory may turn into a hallow one…

    1) The poll aggregate showing Obama ahead in PA is not within the margin of error.

    2) It’s h-o-l-l-o-w, you illiterate troll.

  34. 34.

    MattMinus

    He’s on our team and all, but Menendez is a real piece of shit. Funny how we think sex tourism is OK for him, but not for Rush.

  36. 36.

    Brachiator

    On a side note, for the love of everything holy, why don’t people pay their hookers in full?

    This is one time where is not a good thing to stiff a hooker.

    And brings to mind one of my favorite bad puns:

    Teacher: Johnny, can you use the word “horticulture” in a sentence?

    Johnny: You can lead a whore to culture, but you can’t make her think.

  37. 37.

    Svensker

    @Ruviana:

    Menendez is not 88, you’re thinking of Lautenberg.

    As a former constituent of Mr. Menendez, may I say that he is the complete Hudson Co. Democratic machine sleazeball, but not a bad senator. He stood up a few times when things were tough on some of the more sensitive national security issues — not 100%, but better than most.

    Whether folks who are trying to figure out how to pump 2 feet of sewage out of their basement apartments (everyone either lives in or rents out their basement in Hudson Co.) give a shit that Menendez stiffed (heh) some hookers 6 months ago… No, I don’t think so.

    He shouldn’t have stiffed the hookers though. Why do they do that?

  38. 38.

    hep kitty

    @MattMinus: Sex tourism, nor any other form of sexual exploitation of another human being or child perhaps, for money or any other purpose, is not ok. However, there is a big fucking difference. It’s called blatant, foul-smelling hypocrisy, the hypocrisy of the Republican Party of Fake Sadistic Bullshit Morality.

  40. 40.

    Elizabelle

    I wouldn’t click on the Daily Caller if you paid me.

    However, have been laughing it up at a Talking Points Memo recounting of Romney supporters encountered at Romney rally in Doswell, VA (famous for Kings Dominion Amusement Park and a truck stop). Doswell’s between Richmond and Fredericksburg on I-95.

    [Retired school secretary Sandra Thornton:] “This is really the first election I’ve felt absolutely terrified,” Thornton said. “Fox is trying desperately to make it out to be a Romney landslide, but I’m nervous.”
    __
    The biggest hurdle Thornton feared was Obama’s continued likability. “He has the charisma,” she said. “But he’s a liar.”
    __
    This was a popular concern. Kurt Johnson, 62, a who works in the chemical business in the Richmond area, said he was “enthusiastic” about the election but worried too many people see Obama as “hip, cool, and sympathetic.”
    __
    “Michael Jordan could be president on that basis,” he said. “I don’t mean to sound glib, but are we electing someone to know the top hip hop songs — or to get the job done?”

    Barack Obama. Lying encyclopedia of hip hop songs. Okay.

  41. 41.

    Killjoy

    @WMR: As the reality of Mittens’ inevitable defeat sinks in to your addled noggin, your attempts to troll grow ever more feeble and pathetic.

    UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH!

  42. 42.

    Ethan

    I know everyone here hates her. But I did like McArdle’s joke that DC should censure Spitzer for having hookers brought in from New York when there are perfectly good hookers in Washington who need the business.

  43. 43.

    joeyess

    On a side note, for the love of everything holy, why don’t people pay their hookers in full?

    Smiling wryly…. thanks, Cole.

  44. 44.

    Jeremy H

    Oh, that’s awesome. The ad on the right side of this page right now? DominicanCupid.com

    I love how advertising algorithms have zero sense of irony.

  45. 45.

    Violet

    @JPL: No worries. I’m home sick today, so I’ve been lurking around online all day, while intermittently watching MSNBC, horrific daytime TV, and a few things on the DVR. I’m pretty sure I haven’t moved off the sofa except to refill my water glass.

  46. 46.

    BGinCHI

    @Elizabelle: Not a lot of reasons given to vote for Mitt….

    Hard to believe they’d distrust Obama like that. Why on earth….OK, forget it. People are just so fucking stupid.

  47. 47.

    muddy

    @beltane:

    This sounds like a case for Judge Judy.

    My friend recently got a call from the Judge Judy show, apparently they troll small claims filings across the country looking for nasty stories. I thought they just found weird people on the street.

    ETA I don’t even know how to nest boxes and there they are.

  48. 48.

    beltane

    @muddy: I always wondered how people ended up on that show. I assumed they went looking for Judge Judy but I guess it’s the other way around.

  49. 49.

    scav

    Previously: Which Mitt Romney? (Weathervane Mitt Romney on certain channels)
    Upcoming: Who’s Mitt Romney?

  53. 53.

    hep kitty

    Oh shit, I can see it now. Chris Christie bitchslapping some Fox News fishwife in a suit and tie for asking about this. “I don’t give a damn about that! My only focus is and will be taking care of the people of NJ and getting them through this crisis! I couldn’t give a damn about any of that right now. You don’t know me, pal.”

  55. 55.

    muddy

    in reply to beltane @48 My friend brought a case against a house/animal sitter from hell. She was really surprised to hear from the show. They fly you out there, put you up in a hotel and give you a per diem, and drive you etc. Also if you win you are guaranteed to get your money right then (I suppose the show pays it?) which would not be the case in real court. My friend was not keen to be on the show, but there’s someone on the west coast she’d like to visit, so she said okay. She hasn’t heard back yet.

    Hopefully the other party will want to take a trip and be on tv, not realizing that they are clearly the nasty party.

  57. 57.

    PsiFighter37

    @WMR: dude, the quality of your material an the enthusiasm with which you push it is down. Is someone haz a sad because you’re smart enough to see that your man is about to go down in 5 days time?

    I can’t WAIT to drink your tears. I bet it’ll be like ambrosia and nectar.

  58. 58.

    hep kitty

    It is true it should go without saying that anyone in the public eye should avoid, at all costs, underpaying your hooker.

  61. 61.

    Comrade Mary

    Can you freeze a Taco? I think the beans would get crumbly and the tortilla would get floppy.

  63. 63.

    The Red Pen

    @dmsilev:

    The troll apparently believes that Obama’s victory in Ohio has been blessed and consecrated. Why argue with him?

    No, he said “possible Ohio victory.” Romney’s basically won Ohio, but Obama might possibly get a few extra votes or something.

    I’ve spent today reading celebratory Free Republic threads with titles like “LANDSLIDE WATCH” so I’m actually starting to feel sorry for these people.

  65. 65.

    1badbaba3

    I was going to make a joke about hookers being the ultimate “job” creators, but I’m still a little bummed that my “Chris Christie has a lot of guts” gag went over like a limp blimp. So I will refrain.

    …and I mean a lot of guts…

    C’mon, y’all. It’s not like pickin’ on Santa.

  68. 68.

    fuckwit

    For the love of everything holy, why is it when a Democratic politician is in a sex scandal, his party is mentioned PROMINENTLY in the lede and even headline, but when a Rethug does it, their party is not ever stated?

    Why is that, really?

  69. 69.

    feebog

    So, Tucker, just to be entirely consistent, why don’t you run the OpEd where you called for David Vitter’s resignation? What, the dog ate it you say?

  70. 70.

    The Red Pen

    @1badbaba3:

    C’mon, y’all. It’s not like pickin’ on Santa.

    Maybe. You notice how you never see Chris Christie on Christmas Eve? I’m just saying.

  71. 71.

    Drew

    @WMR: when you’re staring at that fistful of pills Tuesday night, wondering whether you should do it, I want you to know-yes. Yes, you should.

  72. 72.

    FlipYrWhig

    @The Red Pen: Maybe when they said “Landslide Watch” they actually meant the wistful Fleetwood Mac song. “Well, I’ve been afraid of changing / ‘Cause I’ve built my life around you”

  73. 73.

    Keith G

    Anybody else notice the hot leather bomber jacket (tailored down to an inch of it’s life) Obama was rocking today in Green Bay? Dude really tapped in to his inner stud.

    Damn, that alone is worth an extra 50,000 cheese head votes.

  75. 75.

    trollhattan

    @WMR:
    I’ve got a counter-prediction for yez. I get home next Tuesday and turn on my teebee machine, waiting (tick, tock, tick) for the left coast 8:00 p.m. poll closures, freeing the networks to release their exit-polling results. Within two beers of the polls closing, the first declaration of an Obama win will be declared.

    Ain’t that a peach?

  76. 76.

    FlipYrWhig

    I knew that when Obama won all the psychopaths would start bleating about “fraudulent voters,” which they’ll believe (or pretend to believe) is the only explanation for why the Unskewed Polls will have turned out so inaccurate.

  79. 79.

    John O

    @Elizabelle:

    I wouldn’t click on the Daily Caller if you paid me.

    Just for the record, I would click on the Daily Caller if I was paid enough.

    Tucker actually, for real wishes he was Drudge.

  80. 80.

    different-church-lady

    @WMR: Wait a minute… the Detroit Lions won the 2008 Super Bowl? Man, the things you learn around here…

  83. 83.

    The Red Pen

    @WMR:

    I’ve said it again but it bears repeating: in Presidential politics the Republicans are the Green Bay Packers, and the Democrats are the Detroit Lions.

    And if this case, there’s 3 minutes left in the 4th quarter and the Lions are ahead by a field goal. Who is going to win?

  84. 84.

    22over7

    Chuck Todd is feeling an intangible tingle up his leg for Obama. As for any real data, he has nothing.

  85. 85.

    trollhattan

    @John O:

    Tucker actually, for real wishes he was Drudge.

    Hmm, a followup to the Calcutta contest?

    If you’ve declared your inability to sustain an erection by wearing a bowtie, you may already be Matt Drudge.

  87. 87.

    trollhattan

    @Raven:
    Hazy recollection (moar than two beers) but yeah, I think once the Ohio projections came in it was game ovah.

  89. 89.

    Yutsano

    @beltane: Nope. The producers of all the court shows do this. Some do self-identify, but most get offers, and most take it because both sides get paid. It’s really funny how most of them were family judges in a former judicial life.

  94. 94.

    Chyron HR

    @WMR:

    North Carolina and Virginia if not called at least moving in Romney’s direction.

    “At least moving in Romney’s direction, maybe kind of if you squint and wish really hard.” I like how you’re reduced to hedging your bets on NC and VA now–states that went Republican for FORTY STRAIGHT YEARS.

    But, hey, that was back when you were running guys like Reagan and Nixon, not White Horse Romney, High Bishop and Chief Thetan Auditor of the Holy Mormon Church.

  96. 96.

    different-church-lady

    Look folks, remember on the playground how the less sense the taunting made, the more effective it was?

    It’s like that.

  98. 98.

    beltane

    @Amir Khalid: They can’t even verify that Menendez was in the Dominican Republic at the time? This doesn’t even rise to the level of sloppy journalism.

    The story is so pathetic that even S.E. Cupp had a sane response to it.

  102. 102.

    aimai

    @MattMinus:

    I don’t have an opinion about Sex Tourism with consenting adults. I do have an opinion about sex tourism that involves underage boys and girls.

    aimai

  103. 103.

    Keith G

    @hep kitty:

    And no, I did not know Menendez had it in him.

    Do we know anything was in him? I thought he was a Democrat.

    Of course…why even assume this story is accurate at this point?

  104. 104.

    Ed in NJ

    @Amir Khalid:

    And yet there are morons here already taking the story at face value instead of a desperate smear.

    When did foreign hookers become credible sources?

  107. 107.

    Jason

    @beltane: Another little (not so) secret about Judge Judy’s show: the “verdicts” are just for show. No matter what the outcome of the case, the party with the adverse finding doesn’t pay. By prior agreement, the show pays. Plus, both parties get a modest appearance fee (around 250 dollars.) So so long as you can stand national humiliation, appearing on Judge Judy is a good way of getting out of having to pay on a claim against you.

  109. 109.

    WMR

    I am NOT hedging my bets, VA WILL GO RED, period. Just saying it won’t be called for Romney at 11:30 pm on Election Night while NH, FL, and NC will have already been called.

  110. 110.

    Older_Wiser

    So–the DC found hookers who didn’t know the difference between Lush Limpballs and Bob Menendez? Hmmmm?

  112. 112.

    muddy

    Tweety called Limbaugh a “walrus under water” and made grunting noises and flailing to illustrate. Said he was squealing like a pig, like in Deliverance. Then he says let’s not talk about Limbaugh, let’s talk about reality. Lord love him he’s a loony, but I just love him, you never know what will pop out.

    Now he says coming up he will talk about Steve King, who he describes as “one of the wackos”.

  116. 116.

    hep kitty

    I’m proud to have voted against Bush’s war in Iraq right from the start–even when it was unpopular to do so. The Bush administration failed to make the case that Iraq was an imminent threat to our national security. Moreover, there was no conclusive evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. This was a war of choice, not a war of necessity. The Bush administration misled the American people with faulty premises and false promises. . . It’s time to end the open-ended commitment of US forces in Iraq.
    — Bob Menendez

    (i’m sorry i messed up the link above & now i can’t find it)

  117. 117.

    different-church-lady

    @WMR: No, you don’t sound very confident. You keep clarifying your own position without any provocation, making responsive statements to nobody.

  120. 120.

    LD50

    @: @Chyron HR:

    “Next time, we’re coming armed.”
    – The Tea Party Motto

    Yeah, but it’s a little hard to aim a gun while trying to steer a mobility scooter.

  121. 121.

    LD50

    @different-church-lady: Just two days ago he complained that if Obama won the electoral college but lost the popular vote that the country would be ‘ungovernable’. Sounds to me like he’s already accepted that Romney’s losing.

  128. 128.

    gf120581

    Even if this Menendez thing ends up being true, who cares? He’s a single guy and he was in a country where prostitution is legal. Unless he used taxpayer money or something, the only crime he’s guilty of is being a cheapskate. (Don’t stiff the hookers, people! Depending on how good they are, a nice tip is in order.)

    And I agree, pulling this days before the election, against a Senator winning by landslide margins against a no-name opponent, in a state where everyone’s preoccupied in the wake of a hurricane, is the worst possible October Surprise imaginable. I guess Tucker and his little elves couldn’t get any footage of Jon Tester snorting crystal meth off a piebald dwarf’s rectum, so he had to go with this.

  130. 130.

    Felonius Monk

    If Bob can take on 2 hookers at his age, then not pay them and get away with his junk intact — he deserves to be re-elected to the Senate and then some!

  131. 131.

    burnspbesq

    @Ruviana:

    That dude is like 88 years old. This story sounds like a positive for him!

    You’ve got your guys mixed up. It’s Lautenberg who refutes the fundies’ version of the Creation story by being more than 6,000 years old.

  132. 132.

    Cantrip

    @WMR: Don’t forget to save those nickles they’re paying you… you have such a track record of being egregiously wrong that you may not get a re-up in 2014.

    I do truly hope that the improving economy in the second Obama term helps you find a job where you won’t have to hook yourself out again. Good Luck with that!

  133. 133.

    burnspbesq

    @Keith G:

    I could have sworn I saw a little sumpin sumpin on Obama’s upper lip when he was in NJ yesterday. I hope he’s not planning to grow a Billy Dee Williams thing for his second term. Lando Calbama? Please, no.

  135. 135.

    MattMinus

    @aimai:

    What you don’t have is any evidence Rush did what you’re claiming.

    IIRC, what we know is that Rush was caught coming back from DR with an illegal prescription for Viagra. Then the left wing internet decided that since there are child prostitutes in the Dominican Republic, Rush must have been employing them.It seems you could make an equally valid (which is to say not at all valid) case that Menendez couldn’t afford to pay these sex workers because he’s already spent his prostitute budget on boys.

    Freepers with blue jerseys, I tell ya.

  136. 136.

    MattMinus

    @aimai:

    What you don’t have is any evidence Rush did what you’re claiming.

    IIRC, what we know is that Rush was caught coming back from DR with an illegal prescription for some pills to help with his unsurprising flacidity. Then the left wing internet decided that since there are child prostitutes in the Dominican Republic, Rush must have been employing them.It seems you could make an equally valid (which is to say not at all valid) case that Menendez couldn’t afford to pay these sex workers because he’s already spent his prostitute budget on boys.

    Freepers with blue jerseys, I tell ya.

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