VIDEO: Menendez Searches for the Mute Button

The Department of Transportation (DOT )on Tuesday banned truckers and bus drivers from texting while driving, and a group of Senate Democrats took to the mics to push their own legislation to do more – enacting a ban on all texting while driving, not just this smaller bite at the apple out of DOT.

But as he rode out the news conference in a room on the 2nd floor of the Capitol, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-NJ, flushed when he realized that the pesky cell phone ringing incessantly was his own.

As he pulled the offending cell phone from his pocket, a reporter chided, “It’s ok. At least you weren't driving.” Menendez, turning an ever brighter shade of red, laughed along with his colleagues, Sens Chuck Schumer, D-NY, and Kay Hagan, D-NC, and said jovially, “Texting while driving , uh, texting while answering press questions!”

Schumer, ever the wise-cracker, said out of view of the cameras, added: “also, also dangerous!”

Menendez piled on his own predicament, “Also dangerous, because it puts me off on my thoughts! So let me shut this off.”

And that never happens: politicians answering questions without thinking… :)

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