The day before the trial of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez on corruption charges, I was talking it over with a veteran of the Hudson County political wars who is my go-to guy on all matters Menendez.

"Imagine how he's gonna feel when he's in the same courthouse where Billy Musto went on trial," my friend said. "Only this time he's the defendant instead of a witness."

The young Bob Menendez was a star witness in that 1982 trial on corruption charges of the Union City Mayor who had been his mentor. My friend was in the courtroom when the jury came back and pronounced Musto guilty. But when the judge asked the jurors individually whether they agreed with the verdict, one woman replied, "No."

The judge immediately ordered the jury back into deliberations. But that one moment of hope for Musto dissolved when they returned to say they now agreed unanimously on the guilty verdict.

Musto was sentenced to the slammer right before Election Day. But in the classic Hudson tradition, city residents voted overwhelmingly to return him to City Hall. He refused to resign his seat he held in the state Senate as well. It took several court decisions - and a crowbar - to get him out of the two seats.

Will something similar result in this case?

After watching the first day of the trial, I like the odds of history repeating itself.

The day was devoted to opening statements from the prosecution as well as the lawyers for Menendez and his co-defendant, Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen.

The feds went first, with lead prosecutor Peter Koski making the case that "Robert Menendez was Salomon Melgen's personal United States senator."

Koski gave a list of favors that Menendez had done for Melgen and did his best to connect them to a lot of goodies that he got from the senator.

The favors included helping the doctor get visas for female friends of his, intervening with Obama administration officials in a case in which Melgen was accused of overbilling Medicare $8.9 million, and trying to pressure officials in the Dominican Republic to grant a port-security contract to a firm in which Melgen had a major interest.

The goodies included having the doctor use his American Express points to get Menendez a luxury room at a Paris hotel "with a limestone bath soaking tub and enclosed shower with view," more than a dozen trips to the Dominican Republic on Melgen's private jet, and about $750,000 in contributions to various campaign funds.

"The reason Senator Menendez received all those things from Doctor Melgen is because he was being bribed," Koski said. "He didn't get to enjoy the spoils of Melgen's wealth for nothing. He had to pay for it."

The payment, Koski said, came in the form of using his office as a U.S. Senator from New Jersey to help someone "from over a thousand miles away."

Koski concluded his relatively brief presentation by anticipating the defense that Menendez is offering, that any favors were done out of friendship rather than any corrupt motive.

"There is no friendship exception to breaking the law," he said. "This case is about betraying the people of New Jersey by using a public office for personal profit."

The rebuttal from the senator's defense attorney, Washington heavy-hitter Abbe Lowell, was longer and a lot more detailed.

Lowell took the rather interesting tack of stating that the defense was willing to stipulate to all of the individual incidents laid out by the prosecution

"We will not need to hear what movie star stayed at what hotel," he told the jurors.

But none of that rises to the level of bribery unless there is an agreement tying a specific action to a specific reward, he said.

"Not one witness will state there was such an agreement," he added. "The prosecution will expect you to infer an agreement, but there is not one scrap of evidence about there being such an agreement."

Absent such evidence, he said, "It's not bribery."

Lowell argued that the two were friends for years before Menendez became a senator and that the only actual gifts in the relationship went from the senator to the doctor, such as a gold-plated watch and a $1,000 wedding gift for Melgen's daughter.

As for all those flights on the private jet, by the time Lowell got through talking about them in depth, I suspect not a single juror could remember what the prosecution had said about them in the first place.

Lowell made it clear the defense intends to bury the case in detail, with days and days of documentation to come. But his arguments seemed tailored to paving the way for an appeal in the event the jury affirms at least one of the 10 counts against the senator.

Those grounds have to do with the definition of "official action." In a decision last year, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the corruption conviction of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell on the grounds that he had taken no official action on behalf of the guy who gave him gifts.

Lowell drilled down on that point by arguing that all the alleged favors done by the senator came through his efforts to influence the executive branch. But he's a member of the legislative branch. And he never proposed any legislation benefitting Melgen. Ergo, he's innocent.

Or so said Lowell. The jury might not agree.

In that case, Menendez might wind up as his mentor did - clinging on to his seat after a conviction that he hopes to get reversed on appeal.

Washington insiders are having a lot of fun war-gaming just how well that would go over with his fellow Democrats in Congress. Would they let him hang around while an appeal drags on through the courts?

If so, he'd likely want to run for re-election next year.

So they might want to keep that in mind.