Richardson/Blagojevich “tie” not yet clear enough

Those people with an interest in Latino political empowerment who also have a knack for concocting wild conspiracy theories have speculated that people are out “to get” New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

Whether it’s because they don’t want anyone with an ethnic background tracing back to Latin America holding significant office in the United States, or whether it’s Hillary Clinton engaging in “payback” for Richardson’s endorsement of Barack Obama that took her primary campaign down a notch, some people are willing to believe anything.

BUT AFTER READING the latest report about Richardson, one that appeared last week in the New Mexican newspaper out of Santa Fe and is now working its way around the Internet and to sites read by people with an interest in Latino affairs, I have to wonder.

The “report” tries to show a link between the New Mexico governor and his counterpart in Illinois.

That would be the now-infamous Rod Blagojevich, who has federal prosecutors in Chicago eager to punish him for allegedly soliciting paybacks from people interested in replacing Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate.

In Illinois, legislators who could never stand Blagojevich are using that as an excuse to dredge up every single complaint they ever had, and impeach the guy. There’s a good chance that in coming weeks, a “trial” of sorts by the Illinois Senate will result in his removal from political office.

AND NOW, SOME people would like for us to think that Blagojevich and Richardson are somehow aligned spiritually, and possibly financially.

The report in the New Mexican notes that Richardson provided $20,000 in campaign donations to Blagojevich’s bid for re-election in 2006. Of course, that was when the former Cabinet member, member of Congress and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations was trying to keep alive a national profile by serving as head of the Democratic Governors Association.

He was in charge of a group that was trying to promote the idea that all the states ought to have a candidate of the Democratic Party as the chief executive of their respective governments.

That means Richardson was giving money to just about every incumbent Democrat who was a governor, along with any gubernatorial challengers who actually looked like they had a chance to win.

IT MUST ALSO be noted that the contributions were reported back in 2006 to the proper authorities. There was nothing secretive about the donations.

When put in that context, it is not the least bit mysterious that Blagojevich got some campaign cash at Richardson’s direction. The real “story” would have been if Richardson had somehow decided to snub Blagojevich and give him nothing.

Is it really a scandal that Richardson is not clairvoyant? He didn’t foresee the eventual criminal complaint sought by the U.S. attorney for Chicago.

And even if you want to believe that with the federal investigation against Blagojevich having taken place for several years that Richardson SHOULD have known something would eventually happen, all Richardson can definitively be found “guilty” of at this point is treating an unindicted (for the moment) governor as though he were not guilty of any criminal wrong-doing.

A CHEAP STORY like this (which is also an old story, since the donations and their reporting to state authorities took place just over two years ago) is about little more than trying to find an excuse to write the names “Blagojevich” and “Richardson” in the same paragraph.

That has been the desire of some ever since Richardson was pressured to back down from seeking a place in an Obama administration (he was in line to be Commerce secretary) on the grounds that federal prosecutors for New Mexico were looking into state government deals to see if any illegal activity took place.

At issue is a 2004 contract that was to pay California-based CDR Financial Products just over $1 billion for work on state transportation bonds. Prosecutors in Albuquerque note that the company and its CEO provided a total of just over $100,000 to Richardson’s political committees.

Was there a specific promise that the company would get the contract in exchange for the campaign donations? Richardson insists there wasn’t a specific deal (which could be construed as a bribe) in place, and he says publicly that any investigation will result in him being cleared.

RICHARDSON INSISTS THAT his only reason for stepping back from the campaign post is that there was no way he could be cleared of any wrongdoing before the newly elected Senate began its review of Cabinet appointees this week.

Some people are just overly skeptical of government officials. And that, in and of itself, is not a bad attitude to have.

The problem becomes when one wants to apply skepticism to only select officials for politically partisan reasons. Because that ultimately causes a distrust in the system and the officials who engage in “the people’s business” if the perception is that prosecutors are only going after someone’s political enemies.

Because if that happens, then it isn’t such a far-fetched concept that Hillary “dropped a dime” on Richardson as political payback for that Obama endorsement.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: This story reeks too much of trying to find a “New Mexico” angle (http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Richardson-gave-money-to-Blagojevich-s-re-election-campaign) to the national political phenomenon otherwise known as Rod Blagojevich.

Richardson may have a record as an international negotiator, yet even he couldn’t get Illinois Democrats to “play nice” with (http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2008/08/13/news/doc48a3b2a34846c231952479.txt) Blagojevich. It’s hard to say that there’s any stronger tie between the two men.

For those (http://www.richardsonforpresident.com/) who want to remember when Richardson was delusional enough to think he could be President of the United States.