After he was sentenced to 11 years in prison, Bob Menendez had this to say:

“Welcome to the Southern District of New York, the Wild West of political prosecutions. President Trump is right: This process is political, and it’s corrupted to the core. I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores the integrity to the system.”

This sounds like satire – a man convicted of receiving thousands of dollars and gold bars as bribes and being a foreign agent to boot – complaining about corruption.
But it’s not satire.

Menendez is letting everyone know that he knows the best way to get to Donald Trump – by saying he’s right. Maybe that’s all it will take for Menendez to be pardoned by Trump.

The president is legendary for overreacting to what people say about him – good or bad.

Criticize Trump, and as we see, you can lose your security coverage even if your life has been threatened.

But praise him and good things happen.

Of course, it still may be a long shot for Trump to pardon Menendez, but the former senator at least is going about this the right way.

It is true that Menendez did vote twice to convict Trump after he was impeached. But now Menendez and Trump are on the same page railing against a corrupt judicial system.

That strategy certainly figures to make more of an impression on the president than the story Menendez’ lawyers told in court, that being he was a man who “came from nothing” and ended up as a United States senator.

Menendez actually came from Union City in Hudson County, which to some, may constitute as “nothing.”

During this saga, I have heard at least two broadcast reports mention that Menendez came from Cuba and or “Castro.”

That is not the case. Menendez was born in the United States, as his parents immigrated here years before Castro.

Of more importance, many politicians have modest – even low income – backgrounds, but they don’t become criminals.

Trump is unlikely to understand a modest upbringing, but he would understand a man complaining about a politicized justice department.

Whether that understanding evolves into a pardon for Menendez is the question.

It is worth wondering what Republicans in New Jersey, where Trump, of course, has a golf course and a residence, are going to do.

Will they do nothing?

Or will they reach out to the White House and tell the president – “No pardon, please?”

Just think for a minute the harm a Menendez pardon would do to the Republican brand in New Jersey.