Richardson Withdraws as Commerce Secretary-Designate

[PatSeg]

Bill Richardson is withdrawing his nomination to be commerce secretary, FOX News confirmed Sunday.

Richardson, who will remain governor of New Mexico, is facing a federal grand jury investigation into whether he exchanged government contracts for contributions to three Richardson political committees.

Richardson denies any wrongdoing but the investigation won't be finished before he has to go to a Senate confirmation hearing.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=404


I just heard this on TV and somehow I'm not surprised. I don't know if he's guilty, but I haven't trusted him for quite some time. His constant self-promotion got very irritating. Thank god Obama didn't pick him for VP or SOS.

[Jennicut]

1. Wow. So glad Obama chose Joe as VP and Hillary as SoS.

Richardson has had rumors about him as far as dirty politics goes for years.

[PatSeg]

2. The guy comes across as a real weasel

He switched to Obama when it looked like Obama was going to win, obviously hoping for the VP slot. By contrast, Joe was really classy as he had no real agenda.

[AspenRose]

3. This saddens me

As a former New Mexico resident, he has done some good things for the state. He is genuinely likable. But he did not ensure that all the votes were counted in 2004. And he has other issues as well (rumors of womanizing and sexual harassment).

I also feel bad for Diane Denish. Here she was all set to be New Mexico's first female governor. She's practically been running the state while Richardson's been out campaigning and trotting off to North Korea...so she's demonstrated she could do it...

[jillan]

4. Wow - this really sucks.

Richardson is not my favorite....he lost me during the primaries when he said he would get the troops out of Iraq immediately. Yeah, right. Sure sounds good tho.
There were other things he did, including his ties to oil companies that really turned my stomach.
(funny, we never heard about that...but always heard about Joe's ties to banks.)

This is probably sweet for both Joe and Hillary - altho neither would every say that.

But it really sucks for Obama, who publicly put his trust in Richardson :(

[Muttocracy]

5. on paper Richardson looked good to me...

was one of my initial top 3 (with Biden and Dodd). After a couple of debates, forget it - esp. the pandering on the war Pirhana mentioned, and him rambling on with no answers and eating up all the time.

There's something sloppy about him, by which I mean not careful. Like people I've worked with who were charming but you had to doublecheck their stuff.

[PatSeg]

6. "Sloppy" is a good adjective for him

He was a terrible candidate, but I think he was running to get back in DC. I don't sense any principles or morality there, just hard line political opportunist.

[Jennicut]

8. I think Richardson is likable personality-wise but sloppy is right

Anyone remember the Wen Lo Hee energy dept scandal in the 90's?
"The Senate confirmed Richardson to be Clinton's Secretary of Energy on July 31, 1998. His tenure at the Department of Energy was marred by the Wen Ho Lee nuclear espionage scandal, during which Richardson publicly named Lee, an employee at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, as a suspect who might have given nuclear secrets to the Chinese government; Lee later was cleared of espionage charges and won a settlement against the federal government for the accusation.<17> Richardson was also criticized by the Senate for his handling of the espionage inquiry, which involved missing hard drives with sensitive data, by not testifying in front of Congress sooner. Richardson justified his response by saying that he was waiting to uncover more information before speaking to Congress.<18> Republican Senators called for Richardson's resignation while both parties criticized his role in the incident, and the scandal ended Richardson's hope of being named as Al Gore's running mate for the 2000 presidential election."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Richardson

He never really seemed to have it all together and he has always had rumors of being shady. However, everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

[Eurobabe]

7. Agree

There has always been something about Richardson that bugged me, can't put my finger on it. So glad he wasn't tapped for SoS or worse VP!

Maybe it's nothing, but my gut says that he wouldn't have withdrawn if he didn't think there was SOMETHING in his past that would come back to haunt him. :shrug: ??

[PatSeg]

9. After all we've been through the last eight years,

we don't need any Democrats that come with suspicious baggage. I have a feeling that Obama wasn't really comfortable with Richardson. Otherwise he would have given him a better appointment.