Bill Richardson mumbles his way off the stage
By David Neiwert Monday Jan 05, 2009 6:00pm
It probably goes without saying that I avidly support appointing Latinos to key positions within the Obama administration, but I've always been hesitant about Bill Richardson. Not only is it well known behind the Democratic scenes that he has certain horndoggy vulnerabilities in his personal life, but he's always carried a certain air of corruptibility peculiar to Western politicians. I know that scent well and it always made me leery.
So I can't say I'm sorry to see him bow out, because my gut instinct was that he spelled T-R-O-U-B-L-E for Democrats generally and the Obama Administration in particular.
His press conference today did nothing to alter that impression, especially when he flatly refused to discuss the investigation into the influence-peddling matter and wouldn't even say whether or not he had lawyered up. It all smells very fishy to me.
Note that Richardson wants us to think he had been perfectly forthcoming with the Obama transition team about the case. Turns out that's not true either.
I'm just glad all this happened before confirmation hearings arrived.
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Richardson, Edwards, whose next? Hillary? A good chunk of the Democratic offering for 2008 all covered in taint.
Repugs no better of course. But if your candidate was Kucinich or Ron Paul early on you have every right to be disappointed with how change is shaping up.
What ever happened to Innocent until proven guilty?
anymore, especially if the accused is a Dem!
He's the first Dem who's openly for medical marijuana. That's got to at least count for something.
He wants mandatory minimums for possession. AG trumps Commerce Secretary.
But that's for Americans too stoned to vote.
come on !richardson gives up a plum job like hes offered over ethics? give me a break! cut a politician open and thier mostly puss! except kucinich! and thats the name of that tune!
Way too true!!!!!!!
Richardson. Batting his eyes at whoever the frontrunner appeared to be during the nomination debates. During which he could only recount each point on his resume` not the issues. So boring he would have killed a horse.
There's a difference between him & Edwards. Richardson has been stuffing his face and his pockets for a number of years on our tab.
He's corrupted his office and he should be taken down.
Edwards on the other hand is a good man and he was taken down FOR THAT REASON.
A good man would not have put the presidency firmly in the hands of McCain by continuing, or even entering, a trek to the white house while knowing that what he did could even potentially become public knowledge prior to (or after, for that matter) the election.
I was an Edwards supporter and as far as I am concerned, he could drop off of the political landscape for life. Fuck him for what could have been the biggest disaster to hit the US since Bush...a President McCain.
Besides what you pointed out, I just don't like douchebags. And someone who has an affair on the wifey while she is going though breast cancer is a douchebag IMHO.
Ironically, I was very impressed with Elizabeth Edwards the more I got to read about her during that whole mess. Somehow I wish she had run instead of her husband.
he had an affair which has nothing to do with his talent with what he could have done for this country.
I just don't think a man's sexual indiscretion has anything to do with his work. It wasn't until the rethugs made this another boundary to blur along with icepicking checks and balances and separation of church & state.
It's a cheap trick to get rid of him.
The problem is that Edwards' dicking around his wife speaks poorly of Edwards judgement, if he was willing to indulge in such risky behavior... when the repugs are looking for any sort of dirt on any of the dem runner ups.
I normally wouldn't care what he does in his private time. The problem is that if he was going to be a viable presidential candidate, he should have known better. Period.
"It all smells very fishy to me."
That's from his horndoggy vulnerabilities .
" Not only is it well known behind the Democratic scenes that he has certain horndoggy vulnerabilities in his personal life, but he's always carried a certain air of corruptibility peculiar to Western politicians. "
Since when are 'Western politicians' historically any more prone to corruption than politicians from the South, the Midwest or even the Northeast? Yes, Ted Stevens and Duke Cunningham were Westerners, but other hotbeds of political corruption come to mind, such as Louisiana, Illinois and Rhode Island.
Care to back up your claim?
Regional chauvinism aside, I seem to remember that Richardson was spoken of very highly in many posts on C&L during the Democratic primaries.
The phrase 'Innocent before proven guilty' comes to mind.
Or is C&L now a venue for that familiar Democratic pastime of pointless internecine warfare?
I completely agree with you, and I have to add this thought. I have no interest in whether or not Bill Richardson is a horndog. I don't really care if Barack Obama has or does cheat on Michele Obama. These are not the subjects I have any interest exploring when talking about what a leader can do for me and our country. The measure of a leader is not where they stick their organs. That is a pile of tabloid-fed, puritanical driven crap. Let;s talk plenty about whether he took money for political favors and awarded contracts based on contributions. But to castigate him primarily because of some rumored and secretive personal junk is a boring.
They stick them in a church sanctuary where they play them all morning long.
that have not only is it well known behind the Democratic scenes that he has certain horndoggy vulnerabilities in his personal life,"
Give me a freakin' break! Not to be confused with two of the most popular Democratic Presidents of the Twentieth Century, John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton, whose virtues will forever be beyond reproach.
Say what you want about Richardson but don't give me that crap.
The man can barely string a sentence together. He was so abysmal in the debates that it would have been alarming had his candidacy gone on much longer. I have no idea how anyone could see this man in the office of the presidency. My guess is that people who may have supported him simply wanted someone Latino, because he did not have much else notable about him. We would have been slaughtered at the polls if Richardson had been a candidate.
on what planet do you reside?
14 years in congress, ambassador to the un, governor of new mexico
ya...nothing notable at all
I know what you mean. I find it hard to reconcile his impressive resume with the persona I saw during the campaign. He's never struck me as particularly articulate and he gave an inexcusably ill-prepared answer to Melissa Etheridge's softball question about whether homosexuality is a choice. I would never have guessed he was someone with diplomatic skills. At best I would have guessed a good bureaucrat who happened not to be blessed with charisma. At worst, a moron.
i have known him for 30 years
helped him get his start in biz, working in his canteen at our hs boarding school...where he helped keep everyone alive by selling hot dogs and hamburgers...the school's cat food was awful
and im curious....what did he do that is different than any good businessman?
what is even weirder, is that i always thought he was a registered repug....most of my freinds are
this morning, el druggo was smearing my freind on the radio....el druggo should not be allowed to smear anyone....the fat drugged out pig that he is
i feel bad for richardson and for david
wish them both the best
withdrawal, ahem, will be shined up and worn proudly, defiantly round Bush 45's overstuffed, entitled neck.
The appointment of Richardson felt like a payoff by Obama for his endorsement during a dicey part of the campaign. It put a definite nail in Hillary's chances. So - that was his reward.
Holy mumbles, Batman!
We seem to still be waiting for that 'shining star' Hispanic politician. Richardson's career seems to be in trouble. Cisneros was brought down by an affair and a fanatical right-wing special prosecutor. Bush tried to make Linda Chavez and then Alberto Gonzalez into political stars. Both of those experiments ended badly. There are still Ken Salazar, Robert Menendez, Antonio Villaraigosa and assorted right-wing Cuban-Americans down in Florida, but none of those seem very compelling. Lets hope it doesn't end up being George Prescott Bush. He seems a perfect little shit.
every hispanic legislator in this state is a crook
Who will be the new Secy of Labor. A great choice. The Neocon's nightmare.
Keeps company with the thugs and votes like a thug EVERY TIME from the day he entered the Senate. Ken Salazar fooled us all here in CO and we can't wait to get rid of him.
Say goodbye to the protection of lands.
Nominate someone that you know will not cut the mustard.
Let your enemies feast upon the political lamb.
After, your political enemies have full bellies.
Nominate the person that you wanted for the job in the 1st place.
i dont think obama wanted taint on any of his nominees
his transition team screwed up
now panetta, that is another story
gotta be the wierdest choice for cia head ever made
If I didn't know any better I would swear a time machine fell sideways off it's pad and we're in 1992.
Or cut the cheese.
Obama really pissed off us Southern voters by ignoring us, after we helped elect him. And if he thinks the 2010 race will be kind to him, he needs to rethink it. Without a Southerner in the cabinet, who does he expect us to listen to when trying to unseast Burr, in NC in 2010? We trust those like us, those that speak to us in our language and rhythm. No one in the Obama world, as comprised now, can do that.
So, by turning his back on the gay/lesbian communities, and ignoring the Southern votes, I guess he want to have a excuse for failing.
OK, BO, you have some street cred, and can play Chicago politics. Given that the Ill. Gov is under suspicion, that's not a good thing for many of us. You reached out to us, and asked us to elect you. We did. You have failed to recognize our votes.
2010 gonna be a bad year for you, Mr. President elect.
After Mr. Arkansas and the mad Texan, it is time for the Southerners to take a break, don't you think.
Or you guys won't be happy until the bars and stars fly on the White House?
Plus Sam Nunn is a huge asshole. No thanks.
So Don't let the door hit ya on the way out, Bill.
Hopefully, something similar will happen with Panetta. Another wrong guy for the job. who's really making these picks?
Edit:
With Dianne Feinstein and Jay Rockefeller, both self-aggrandizing Bush enablers, making some noise about Panetta I may be changing my mind about him. NY Times also reported that Harmon was taken of the list because of her support for Bush policies.
Never liked this guy.
I've just got to ask-- why do some people always have to say that they 'always knew' so-and-so was no good, or that they 'never did like them' when they come under investigation, when there was no reason to hold those feelings prior?
Are they trying to suggest they're psychic, or are am I just meant to come away in awe of their scary people-reading, truth sniffing skills? It's silly.
You all seem to forget about the attorney generals that were fired. Wasn't one of them from New Mexico? Wasn't he fired because he didn't go for phoney voter fraud cases? Who replaced him, another loyal Bushie? Wake the fuck up.
As far as I can tell, this will be another, frightening legacy the Bush Gang will be leaving us. Hundreds of Federal and State (very loyal rightwing) judges appointed in the last eight years.
Unfortunately, it couldn't have happened without Dem support.
After the past 8 years competence has to be the first priority and Richardson isn't that - he's a buffoon. I don't know about his level of corruption (or if he is corrupt at all) but I was glad to see this appointment go away. Now if Holder would just drop out and ...
Texas may be geographically south, but it is not Southern. And, I seem to recall a budget surplus after Bill's 2 terms, and a completely dismal economy and outlook following Wubya's.
As for the stars and bars comment, few of those of us who voted for Obama display the stars and bars.
Not sure where you hail from, but you might want to check the modern demographics of population shift (think 2010 census, reallocation of Congressional seats, shift in power base) and the implications.
Yes, my personal patois may sound different than yours. Try elevating the discussion into a more intelligent theme.
I doubt that Richardson knew much about the particulars of the investigation regarding the pay to play issue. He may not have been able to give the Obama team anything on the issues being investigated because he knew nothing. I don't think he can be faulted for that at all. If the Obama vetters needed more, it was their responsibility to get it elsewhere.
I understand after the Blag scandal, Obama wants to avoid more controversy, but to date, there is no publicized evidence of Richardson's guilt in this matter. Obama can't shunt the blame off now to the man he needed to vet.
Richardson is not someone I know much about (other than he doesn't always make a good public appearance), but I am willing to withhold judgment and remain open minded.
However, after reading Armed Madhouse and seeing Richardson's name mentioned in regards to voter caging, I became somewhat leery.
a slight refresher:
http://www.gregpalast.com/
I am not surprised by this development. Bill Richardson was a nobody in the House until Bill Clinton made him UN Ambassador, then Secretary of Energy. In return, Richardson gave his support to Obama, not Hillary. That told me Richardson has no sense of loyalty or obligation to anyone except himself. Obama does not need that kind of person on the team, no matter how talented he may otherwise be. Bill Richardson cannot be trusted.
What exactly is the deal with the new corruption scandals? For 8 years, you heard next to nothing about any Dem. Now all of the sudden, you get Spitzer, Edwards, Blagoyovech, Richardson in less than a year. Is this some last ditch effort by the Republican machine to wreak some vengeance?
I just hope there are no further major revelations of this nature. Obama is the first presidential candidate to speak to the American public like adults, and I'd hate to see his administration go down in flames because of the political scandals of his party.
This summer, between the time of his indictment by the SEC and his plea of “no contest,” Mr. Kevin Romney secured $350,000 in job training funds and another $45,000 from the Economic Development Department of New Mexico (http://www.edd.state.nm.us/newsEvents/pressRe.... However, not all the news for the devout Mr. Romney, previously a bankroller of brewers (http://www.secinfo.com/d11Amt.1mz.d.htm) and pornographers (http://www.criminallawlibraryblog.com/NY_AppD...), has been good. In the last two months, Mr. Romney has had to plead “no contest” to securities fraud (http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/200...), and his company (Paramount MultiServices) has been sued by the EEOC for sexual harassment (http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/...).
Way to vet, Mr. Richardson!
Richardson is just the lastest victim of the GOP's "Scandal Hunt" that we'll have to endure for the next four years.
Obama hasn't even been sworn in yet, and already they have been criticizing him for his policies.
The GOP is desperately looking for something to taint the image of Democrats after such huge wins following the debacle of the last eight years trying to convince the country, "They've worse than we are!"
Richardson will be cleared, but the damage done to his reputation will last far longer. :(
I live in the capitol of NM, and although I can't speak for the whole state, here's what I think; we all suspect that he's not quite clean. We all think he says stupid things. But... he has won people over, by and large, by doing a good job and being attentive to the state's problems. Problems like education, the economy, drunk driving deaths. But, if you're wondering whether he's squeaky-clean... I don't think so.
first off he is a mumbling slob
second he doesnt care if millions of illegals invade america
i lived in new mexico for almost seven years with him as governor
for my wife & myself it was an awful experience
we did make friends & meet some nice people BUT
for the most part New Mexico is chock full of air headed liberals
and idiots with some kind of reconquista mindset
before moving there neither one of us had ever met a hispanic person - nor did we have any preconceived notions about such
not so now
we could not stand it any longer & walked away from the best paying jobs in our careers
we will never go back they can have it & arizona & california as long as none of my tax money goes to support anything to do with them
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