The Silver Lining of the Richardson Withdrawal

[berni_mccoy]

It's better that Obama's team uncovered this now and he withdrew. This is a big change from allowing someone from serving for X months and then a scandal erupting like time and time again in the Bush Administration.

It's unpleasant and we are left to wonder what actually happened to make him withdraw, if he has done something unworthy of withdraw and the Obama Administration is being overcautious or how bad it really was to make Richardson withdraw.

In any case, Obama is upholding his promise to keep influence and corruption out of his administration and Richardson has done the right thing in withdrawing. This is the change we all believed in.

[Thrill]

1. Maybe he will appoint a Hispanic Woman

to get those special interest groups off his back. Thats the silver lining

[pnwmom]

6. What silver lining? Richardson IS hispanic.

And women, comprising more than half of the population, are not a "special interest group."

[Thrill]

10. NOW and Emily's list ARE special interest groups

And yes I know Richardson is Hispanic. So appointing a Hispanic Woman, helps in both areas where people were complaining.

[pnwmom]

12. NOW isn't a special interest group because the interests it represents are those

of all women (and men who believe in equality).

And Emily's list has a focus on abortion rights, which isn't relevant here.

[Infinite Hope]

17. An interest group can be formal or informal. There are woman's interest groups...

and woman as a block are an interest group. Senior citizens are an interest group. College students are an interest group. Groups with demographic-specific interests...are interest groups. Woman are not a minority, but they are an interest group.

[VeraAgnes]

7. Wake-Up! The repugs

are erroding our base! They can and will investigate as many as they there are...the mission is to weaken Obama in the department of smart choices . They would investigate your grandmother's last menstral period if it made Obama and Democrats look stupid.
They are termites of political destruction.

[smalll]

16. Or this might lead Obama to pick the Portuguese water dog to boost his Latino numbers --

which would be a good thing. Those Portuguese water dogs (Ted Kennedy has one) look a lot more presidential than the half-Canadian/half-French labradoodles!

[Jennicut]

2. Bush admistration: Keep failing and corrupting upward

Obama administration: Hint of any wrongdoing and bye-bye (I hope)

[CountAllVotes]

3. Obama should appoint Kucinich

I'd LOVE to see this!!

:loveya: DK and you'd be GREAT at this job! :D

:dem: :kick:

[goclark]

4. DK is the man!

[knixphan]

9. I would faint if DK got a cabinet position....

We all know he deserves Speaker.

[rockymountaindem]

5. Maybe Xavier Becerra will accept the Commerce post

That would be great.

[Garbo 2004]

8. FBI investigation was publicly known before Richardson's nomination which made

the nomination (after vetting) somewhat odd IMO, if the idea was to stay away from any potential appearance of impropriety in the cabinet noms.

August 2008: http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/apcontract08-30-08.htm

What's more recent are the public reports that the investigation is now at the grand jury stage: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/15/AR2008121502940.html?wprss=rss_politics

[berni_mccoy]

11. No one but the FBI, Richardson and now apparently Obama's team know any details

So anything like the suggestion you are making is merely speculation. You don't know anything more yourself so, really, you are just stirring shit.

Do you know for certain that they did or did not tell Richardson his appointment would be contingent upon thorough vetting of this incident. Richardson is still innocent of any crime or corruption as well, but the vetting team may have just come to a decision that the risk was not worth taking.

[Garbo 2004]

13. Not speculation that the case was publicly known before his nomination or that there was a vetting

process conducted by the transition team for potential Cabinet nominees so that any potential problems or issues would be known prior to a nomination. The idea being to avoid any surprises or embarassments after a nomination is made. Better to not nominate someone than to have the person later withdraw from a nomination under public scrutiny.

Articles about the transition team's rigorous vetting process for potential senior administration officials:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/17/AR2008111703037.html
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/22/obama.vetting/

And I didn't say that Richardson was told that his appointment was "contingent on vetting of this incident." I made no such assertion. What I did say was that it was odd that, after going through the vetting process, he was still nominated considering the pending investigation. (The same investigation Richardson now cites as his reason for withdrawing.)

Richardson was already vetted by the transition team before he was nominated. And for as thorough and cautious as the vetting process was reported to be, it was a bit surprising that Richardson was nevertheless nominated for a Cabinet post while it was known his administration was being investigated by the Feds regarding donations and the awarding of a contract to a donor.

Richardson may well indeed be innocent of any wrongdoing but a Fed investigation of his administration was an issue that some would have thought would have precluded his nomination, in an abundance of caution and to avoid such a very public stepping aside under such circumstances.

[firedupdem]

14. I'm glad he stepped away too. We have enough people

lining up to trash the administration. We don't need anything additional for the repubs and the MSM to pump up 24/7.

[Augdog20]

15. Vote on who Obama should now appoint to replace Richardson at Commerce

I've got a poll of various possibilities to replace Richardson as Secretary of Commerce,
at my blog, Blue Republic of America:
http://bluesunited.blogspot.com /
Would love to hear your input.