Bob Menendez was the literal rags to riches story. The son of penniless immigrants, he was first elected to the Union City School Board at the age of 20, then Mayor, then Assemblyman, then State Senator, then the U.S. House before finally joining the U.S. Senate in 2006.

Menendez eventually obtained the coveted position of Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, giving him enormous power in the foreign policy arena power that ultimately was his downfall.

Already a survivor of the two previous investigations, Menendez has now been convicted of 16 counts, including acting as a foreign agent for Egypt and Qatar, and has come crashing down, with longtime allies calling for his expulsion from the U.S. Senate, and facing the prospect of spending the rest of his life behind bars.

All for a few hundred thousand dollars, some gold bars, a car for his wife and a cheap humidifier.

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_{Shlomo Schorr is the Director of Agudas Yisroel NJ Office}