Sunday, January 4, 2009

Si se peude! - UPDATED

Updated below!

Or maybe not. Gov. Bill Richardson (D-idiot), has withdrawn his name as Secretary of Commerce in the Obama administration due to a pending investigation into a company that has done business with New Mexico. It is being reported this is an investigation into a "pay to play" scenario. Where have we heard this before?

"Let me say unequivocally that I and my Administration have acted properly in all matters and that this investigation will bear out that fact," he said Sunday in a report by NBC News' Andrea Mitchell. "But I have concluded that the ongoing investigation also would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process."

Gov. Richardson did state he has no plans on resigning from his post as Governor, because apparently being a corrupt Secretary of Commerce is bad, but being a corrupt Governor isn't such a big deal. Makes you wonder.

Another thing we should be wondering about is the incredible vetting process Camp Obama was bragging about. First we have Rahm Emanuel who may have something to do with the Blagojavitch scandal, now we have this scandal. Bets on who is next?

On the other hand, Governor Richardson may have found out about something (like the crazazy new deal part deux) and is backing out for political expediency. No matter what the reason, this just may be the most scandal ridden administration in our history - and that is saying something!

UPDATE:

The Obama Bus has been fired up again! Camp Obama say's Richardson lied to them - he was not, in fact, the Richardson they knew.

Sources tell ABC News that officials on the Obama Transition Team feel that before he was formally offered the job of commerce secretary, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was not forthcoming with them about the federal investigation that is looking into whether the governor steered a state contract towards a major financial contributor.

Once the investigation became more widely known through national media reports last month, sources tell ABC News, the Obama Transition Team realized the FBI would not be able to give Richardson a clean political bill of health before the new administration is ready to send his nomination up to the Senate for confirmation.

In a counterpoint:

The Richardson camp says the governor was forthcoming, with sources close to the governor noting that there had been reports about the controversy in local media such as the Albuquerque Journal as far back as August 2008. The governor discussed the investigation with the Obama team, they say, and believes that he and his administration have done nothing wrong.

Perhaps Richardson wasn't entirely forth coming in this ordeal, however, Team Obama was certainly aware that SOMETHING was up. Perhaps The One miscalculated the public's reaction to such shenanigans and Blagogate opened his eyes? Or, more likely, The One is a craptastic judge of people and this is one more indication of many, many things to come. POPCORN! MORE POPCORN OVER HERE!