Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC is reporting that Bill Richardson is withdrawing his name for Commerce Secretary because he does not feel that a grand jury investigation into his financial relationship with one of his donors will be concluded in time for him to be confirmed.
Carol Leonig in the Washington Post wrote about the investigation:
A federal grand jury is investigating how an investment company won more than $1.5 million in work advising the state of New Mexico after making contributions to the political action committees of Gov. Bill Richardson, President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to be commerce secretary.
The "pay-to-play" investigation is looking at whether the governor’s office played a role in the the hiring of CDR Financial Products — and the probe is in a highly active stage, two sources familiar with the matter said. Tomorrow in Albuquerque, the grand jury is expected to hear testimony from several witnesses, including officials at J.P. Morgan, who worked with the state and CDR on the state’s investments, and from Richard’s political action committee, the sources said.
Mitchell says that she thinks Richardson really tried to hang on and is deeply disappointed.
Update: From NBC News:
Obama said Sunday he accepted Richardson’s decision to withdraw with ‘deep regret.’
"Governor Richardson is an outstanding public servant and would have brought to the job of Commerce Secretary and our economic team great insights accumulated through an extraordinary career in federal and state office," Obama said.
Richardson says that his administration "acted properly in all matters and that this investigation will bear out that fact," and that he also plans to remain as Governor.
Update II: Steve Terrell of the Santa Fe New Mexican is on MSNBC says that members of Richardson’s administration have been testifying before the grand jury and it is not known whether Richardson himself is a subject of the investigation. "All I can say is that something must have changed," said Terrell.
Related posts:
- Sunday Late Night: Who is the Commerce Secretary Calling?
- Army Secretary Nominee McHugh Favors “Changing” DADT, per Gibbs
- FDL Book Salon Welcomes Jill Richardson, Recipe for America: Why Our Food System is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It
- Note to Chamber of Commerce: Please Update to This Century
- Chamber Of Commerce Attacks Schumer’s Public Option Amendments
Spotlight
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Firedoglake
Advanced search
Thanks Jane.
digg
Unfreakingbelievable on all fronts.
Oh boy, now who?
Ralph Nader? Bah hahahahaha!
what a shame. he’ll be cleared then available for assignment in 2009.
Stop that giggling right now. :)
LOL I’m trying to, Twain!
So why wasn’t this a problem when he was running for president? If it’s enough to sink a candidate for Commerce Secretary, what would it have done to a President Elect?
I’m dubious. NM has some awfully crooked politicians, but Richardson has always seemed aboveboard. Then again, that alone is enough to get you indicted in some places.
– MarkusQ
Well damn.
NM has some awfully crooked politicians? Like who?
Maybe this is Richardson’s excuse to get out of the position? Could be.
I like Richardson and he’s very smart. would have been good, I think.
This is a blow to NM and to Diane Denish, who will be a very good governor, in 2010.
I have no idea if Richardson’s is involved but the one and only time I met him was a really weird experience…….. it was a campaign event, he was opening his AZ Presidential campaign, Gov. Janet was there, select people and grassroot leaders….. When I was introduced to him, as chair of the local Democracy for America chapter, he shook my hand and then bowed and touched his forehead to mine and asked if I was a Deanack…… he did the same with my friend who came with me….. just weird…
Well,
Like Manny Aragon who was Senate president for years and is now in jail for multi million dollar embezelment from a state contract and was one of Bill’s best friends in politics. Richardson is not a good or nice man; he’s always run NM as pay for play and as a stepping stone to higher office. Remember he got his start as Kissinger’s aide in the Nixon whitehouse and was still executive director of Kissinger/associates in 2002 when he ran for Governor. Richardson has finally been caught and I can gaurentee you’ll be hearing more about his corruption in the coming weeks.
Gosh, yet another Democratic governor brought low by a Bush DoJ investigation. Color me surprised: Siegelman, Spitzer, Blagojevich, Richardson. Not to mention Gray Davis, destroyed by the inaction of the Bush energy boys.
Nicely played, Karl, right to the end.
Oh yes, Manny.
But I don’t tar the whole state with the guilt of a little twerp like him.
Well, I am disappointed. I have always thought him to be a good man. Hopefully he will be cleared. But if he is found to have done something illegal, then he must pay the price.
I am not really surprised by this, but I think it is a shock in NM in general. Just 3 days ago, elected officials I talked to did not seem to let on that this was in the wind.
Problem: Pols need money – lots of it.
Partial solution: public finance and shorter campaigns.
There were great hopes this year for public finance in NM. That was. . .earlier today.
A federal grand jury is investigating how an investment company won more than $1.5 million in work …
$1.5 MILLION ??!?!?
i sh*t that much each morning !!
hey dems !! if you’re gonna do corruption, at least do it for something worthwhile – take a page from the repukes’ playbook and get the corruption up into the billions and trillions !!!
$1.5 Million ?!?!?!
the grand jury is wasting their time and tax payer $$$ on $1.5 Million ?!?! WTF is up in new mexico ?!?!?!
Richardson is a good experienced diplomat…He does have a zipper problem but those have been swept under the rug before….I wonder if the clintons have their fingers in this???They were always about revenge…If so she better watch how the press covers the Norman Hsu/ Peter Paul and the NYT’s article of today …She is not a shoe in for confirmation…note she has yet to resign!!!
The answer to why it was not an issue for him running for President…The ’system’ pushes the candidates issues back –just like they have with Hclinton, J Edwards, and others..nothing new –business as usual….
I don’t like his embrace of private prisons.
Karl to the bitter end and I haven’t a doubt this schmuck will top the list of Bush blanket pardons we may as well brace ourselves, sooner than later.
For crying out loud, didn’t we get enough of this during the primaries? There’s absolutely no indication that the Clintons are anywhere near this, except in your delusional fantasy.
And “they were always about revenge?” I’d be interested to know who you think suffered from the Clintons “revenge.” And I assume you can name at least a few people, since they’ve “always” been about revenge.
I lived there for several years and it struck me as pretty darned corrupt. And I”m not alone. According to journalists that cover state politics, New Mexico ranks as the third most corrupt state.
Others have mentioned Manny Aragon. And then there’s Heather Wilson and “Sneaky Pete” Domenici…
But Richardson has always seemed to be a pretty straight arrow, despite the general atmosphere.
– MarkusQ
Let’s not forget this is the state where Rove and Gonzo had David Iglesias replaced as U.S. Attorney because he wouldn’t bring frivolous prosecutions against Democrats. It will, I suspect, pay to wait and see if there’s any there there, other than an attempt to throw sand in the Obama transition gears.
And let’s not forget Pete Dominici and Heather Wilson, who used their high offices to attempt to get an honorable US Attorney to hurry up an indictment for political gain. Though they haven’t been charged, or indicted for anything. They are crooked to the core.
And now Wilson wants to run for Governor in 2010. What a prize she is.
Steve Terrell may be right about something changing re the grand jury, but I’m not so sure. If you read the statements by Obama, Richardson and now Lt. Gov. Diane Denish – who would replace Richardson if he left – there is clearly an assertion by all parties that this is just a temporary delay that will ultimately result in Richardson’s getting off the hook and into the Obama administration.
Read this for another interpretation of what’s going on and why: http://tinyurl.com/9fjnvf
Manny certainly did wrong, but many people don’t know that for many years he was one of the most progressively liberal forces in NM. He helped many people and he did many good things, including providing very strong support for the GLBT community. In fact, Richardson has too, and NM is one of the few states without a DOMA law.
As for bribery and skimming — show me a place where it doesn’t go on. It is the very basis of power in the US government. If you’re not doing it, you’re not powerful. It’s time to stop punishing people for dealing with the system that exists, and start changing the system that requires people to become crooks to rise in politics.
Yeah, that’s my take too.
I suspect what’s really going on here is the Karl’s slime machine got Richardson and they’re going to hold off until he can wipe the rove off his shoes, rather than tracking all over the freshly mopped floors and stinking up the place.
– MarkusQ
The Mexican Mafia runs NM. Richardson and the corrupt legislature keep giving away our tax base to out-of-state corporations who come in here and take our $$$ supposedly to provide jobs and then, like Intel, lay off all their workers and go bankrupt, take the pensions with them and leave a huge environmental mess to clean up.
Just this last summer, there was hooting and hollering about a 200 million surplus. Then, it was gone ( who knows where) and now we have a budget deficit; thsis has happened several times since I’ve lived here
Richardson has always seemed like a good Republican to me. And Albuquerque’s mayor Chavez is as corrupt as they come.
The only bad news about this is that Richardson will be coming back and Denish won’t be our governor. ERGH.
I hope they hang him high.
Kassandra, I’d like to disagree with some of your assertions. I find your comment about a “Mexican Mafia” rather insulting, but in any case it wouldn’t apply to Richardson since he is viewed in a negative manner as an outsider because he wasn’t born and raised here. The long-time status quo that’s been most engaged in pay to play is actually against Richardson, not with him.
As for New Mexico’s finances shifting rapidly from boom to bust, that’s what happens when so much of a state’s budget is funded by oil, gas and mineral mining fees and taxes. There was a surplus last year because oil and gas prices, as well as those for other minerals like copper, were high. We all know what’s happened of late with those prices crashing.
As for Intel, they have been in business here for decades, and still are, even if they — like so many other companies — have had to lay off workers recently.
Richardson has his faults as do all politicos, but he has moved NM into at least the 20th century with a commuter train line from Belen to Santa Fe, that will eventually be extended further. It was put into place in record time. He’s also successfully pushed for a space launch facility that’s leased primarily by Virgin and brought hundreds of movies to be filmed here producing lots of jobs. He’s also made sure that tech training for various aspects of the move industry is provided here. In addition, the standards he pushed successfully for renewable use here are some of the very best in the nation.
It’s easy to say all politicians are crooks, and that’s true to some extent because that’s the nature of the beast in the USA with its money driven political system. But to paint with such a broad brush as you have is more than a bit over the top in my view.
Note, the reply by me above was to Kassandra’s comments. Ooops.
An interesting story. I read once that one of his assistants got annoyed with him because he would literally lean over and lick one lens of her glasses while she was wearing them and trying to communicate something to tease her. What is with that behavior?