The Greek lobby and the re-election of an influential senator

Americans go to the polls in five days' time for the midterm elections, in which they will not be voting for a president but for all the seats in the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate. As in any electoral battle of this kind, there are a number of candidates who are more positively inclined toward Greece and whose election could prove instrumental for this country.

Among them in the upcoming race is Bob Menendez, Greece's most fervent and powerful supporter in Washington, particularly when the Democrats hold the majority. He bears a lot of similarities to the powerful Paul Sarbanes, who has now retired (his son, John, is a Congressman in Maryland, a state which is represented in the Senate by another friend of Greece, Chris Van Hollen).

Menendez is one of the few officials in Washington right now with such in-depth knowledge of Greece and Cyprus. He is...