FALLS CHURCH, Va. — Sandwiched between two doctors’ offices at a roadside plaza here is the headquarters of a small team of veteran Republican investigators, operating almost as a private detective squad, who since late last year have had a determined goal: bringing down Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey.

Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey said a partisan conspiracy focused the news media on him before his re-election.

Ken Boehm, chairman of a conservative group seeking evidence against Mr. Menendez.


“We’ve never sent a Democrat to jail,” said Ken Boehm, the chairman of the group, the National Legal and Policy Center, as he looked up from a table filled with his Menendez files and engaged in what was to him a bit of wishful thinking.
To Mr. Menendez and his staff, the work going on at this suburban Washington office suite, paid for by donations from prominent Republicans nationwide, is proof that the news media frenzy focusing on his actions to help a Florida eye doctor is at least in part a political smear.

But the results have been troubling revelations. Those documented by The New York Times, The Washington Post and other newspapers involve serious accusations of favoritism by the senator.
In recent weeks, Mr. Menendez has acknowledged intervening with at least four federal agencies — including the Departments of State and Health and Human Services — in ways that stood to benefit his friend and campaign contributor Dr. Salomon E. Melgen, who is under investigation by federal authorities for possible Medicare fraud.

But the way Mr. Menendez first came under broader scrutiny, at a minimum, illustrates the often-hidden role that partisan players have in helping push the major news media to dig into ethical allegations lodged against sitting members of Congress.
The inquiry began with an incendiary tip — unproven and vehemently disputed by Mr. Menendez — that Dr. Melgen had helped procure prostitutes, some of them underage, for Mr. Menendez, after flying the senator repeatedly on his private plane to the Dominican Republic, where Dr. Melgen has a home at a seaside resort. This information was put forward by an odd array of self-interested characters, including the right-leaning Web site The Daily Caller and someone — his identity remains a mystery — who claimed to be an American citizen who frequented the Dominican Republic.
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Mr. Menendez has rejected that call, returning frequently to his claim that he is the victim of a professional smear campaign.

Ms. Sloan, in this case, said that while the investigation may have started with unsubstantiated allegations — and been pushed along by Republican-leaning groups — through the follow-up work by newspapers including The Times, The Washington Post and The Miami Herald, serious charges have since emerged.

“The increased scrutiny on Menendez’s relations with Dr. Melgen was well deserved and has highlighted some clearly improper conduct by Menendez on Melgen’s behalf,” Ms. Sloan said. “But it’s been a long, strange trip.”

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I've never read an article with so much pejorative as this one. Everyone listed who is investigating or accusing Robert Menendez has been labeled, by way of introduction as a Republican right wing partisan. That is the case all the way through, until the very last paragraph! where it is stated for the first time there's been "some clearly improper conduct by Menendez on Melgen’s behalf,”

But you must read the article to the last paragraph, ignoring the article's headline, ignoring the trashing of each investigator's motives, hear the vehement denials by Menendez that the charges are merely a partisan witch hunt. Only the will you read one single line about how the charges have merit.

These days prepare to battle the Press, tooth and nail, if you attempt to bring a Democrat to justice. Such an effort will not be accompanied by investigative reporting, quite the opposite! Only when the charges become irrefutable will the NYT then reluctantly and pejoratiely report the "facts".