Richardson out

#1
utvolpj

utvolpj

Bandwagon Mod
Staff member
Joined
Feb 2, 2005
Messages
93,409
Likes
64,811
#1
Richardson to withdraw as Commerce secretary - Politics- msnbc.com

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, tapped in December by President-elect Barack Obama to serve as secretary of Commerce, has withdrawn his name for the position, citing a pending investigation into a company that has done business with his state.
Click to expand...

"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." A federal grand jury is investigating how a California company that contributed to Richardson's political activities won a lucrative New Mexico state contract.



A person familiar with the proceedings has told The Associated Press that the grand jury is looking into possible "pay-to-play" dealings between CDR Financial Products and someone in a position to push the contract through with the state of New Mexico.
Click to expand...
 
#2
#2
Well..withdrawing his name was the right decision - I just hope there isn't anything to it...I like Bill Richardson for the most part...
 
#3
#3
this is what happens to folks who turn their backs on the Clintons.
 
#6
#6
TennTradition said:
Well..withdrawing his name was the right decision - I just hope there isn't anything to it...I like Bill Richardson for the most part...
Click to expand...

br2.jpg


Richardson is crooked as a dogs hind leg, this does give the Obama team a possible diversion from the corrupt Chicago senate seat for sale scandal though.

Somebody has got to go under the bus, there may be more before this is over.

obama-buscrowdedsmall.JPG

Another one bites the bus, wonder about Rahm Emanuel??

extrication.jpg


Then Richardson was also involved with Washington State governor Gregoire in the Tribal casino scam is which the Indians didn't have to pay taxes but were expected to come up with hefty campaign contributions.

Gov. Christine Gregoire is benefiting from more than $650,000 in campaign contributions from Indian tribes that hit the jackpot in 2005 when she killed a gambling compact potentially worth more than $140 million a year to the state.

Unlike 22 other states that collect millions from revenue sharing agreements for tribal gambling, Washington gets no money from tribal casinos under the compact that Gregoire renegotiated with the Spokane Tribe.

But gambling experts say the state's arrangement, which gives the governor power to approve or reject gambling agreements with the tribes and allows those same tribes to contribute to political campaigns, is ethically problematic but not illegal.

Twenty-one tribes in Washington operate 27 casinos under a compact with the state. Unlike some states where the tribes and the state have agreed to share revenue, Washington state receives no tax money from Indian gambling.

Annual revenue of tribal casinos in Washington state:

2005

$1.02 BILLION

2006

$1.19 BILLION

2007

$1.34 BILLION

Contributions to state Democratic Party from tribes since 2004.

$1.6 MILLION


Tribes have also contributed to Republican candidates but at a tiny fraction of the level they have given to Democrats.


------------------------------------
Media comment on Richardson's current problems:


"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."

Of course there is the fact that Richardson endorsed Obama rather than Hillary when he pulled out of the presidential race.

How Obama could think anyone connected with the Clinton's wouldn't have skeletons in their closet is an interesting proposition.

Bill Richardson is just not cut to be another slick willy.
criscokid.jpg


He got by with offering Monica a position to buy her silence and lying under oath but I can't think of anyone who was happy with the way Bill Richardson, then Secretary of the Department of Energy, handled the Los Alamos spy scandal.

Then too, Richardson (as well as Hillary and Biden among others) has received campaign contributions from an oil man indicted for giving kick backs to Saddam Hussein under the UN oil for food program.

Wonder what the chances of knocking Hillary out of the box are???? I'd really hate to see her running the State Department.


WASHINGTON: A developer in New York state donated $100,000 to former President Bill Clinton's foundation in November 2004, around the same time that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton helped secure millions of dollars in federal assistance for the businessman's mall project.

Hillary Clinton helped enact legislation allowing the developer, Robert Congel, to use tax-exempt bonds to help finance the construction of the Destiny USA entertainment and shopping complex, an expansion of the Carousel Center in Syracuse.

She also helped secure a provision in a highway bill that set aside $5 million for Destiny USA roadway construction.

The bill with the tax-free bonds provision became law in October 2004, weeks before the donation, and the highway bill with the set-aside became law in August 2005, about nine months after the donation.

Congel and Philippe Reines, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton, both said there was no connection between his donation and her legislative work on his project's behalf.

Last month, Bill Clinton's foundation revealed the identity of its donors as part of an agreement with President-elect Barack Obama, who selected Hillary Clinton as his nominee for secretary of state.

Most of the attention on the disclosure list has focused on millions of dollars donated by foreign tycoons and Middle Eastern governments, like Saudi Arabia, which have an interest in the U.S. foreign policy that Mrs. Clinton would direct as the nation's chief diplomat.

"There was no connection with Bill Clinton and the 'green bonds' and the contribution," Congel said in an interview. "None at all."

Congel had been a prime force behind Congress's passage of tax-exempt "green bonds," a program to decrease the financing costs of some $2 billion in environmentally friendly projects by exempting lenders from paying federal taxes on their income from the private bonds. By some estimates, the program could cost the Treasury about $200 million.

The way the legislation was written, Congel's Syracuse development, which he agreed to build and run in a way that promotes renewable energy and recycling, was one of just four proposed projects that would qualify.

His contribution is the only known situation so far in which an American donor gave a large sum to Bill Clinton's foundation while benefiting from his wife's official actions.

obamabus.gif
 
#9
#9
TennTradition said:
Yeah....you're right, gs....f*** him. :)
Click to expand...

In reality Richardson withdrew, it wasn't that team obama asked him to withdraw, which makes me think that maybe Bill started thinking about what happened to Ron Brown.:)
 
#10
#10
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top