Saturday, March 22, 2008

Clinton Gets Easter Kiss From Richardson

“An act of betrayal,” said James Carville, an adviser to Mrs. Clinton and a friend of Mr. Clinton.
“Mr. Richardson’s endorsement came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate, if ironic,” Mr. Carville said, referring to Holy Week.



Just in case you forgot just how vicious and despicable most politicians are, savor the perfidy of the amiable Bill Richardson. This of course is the same honest Gov. Bill Richardson that was forced to admit that his baseball draft claim, (being picked for the Kansas City A's in 1966) was untrue.

For nearly four decades Richardson maintained he was drafted by the Kansas City Athletics.

The claim was included in a brief biography released when Richardson successfully ran for Congress in 1982. A White House news release in 1997 mentioned it when he was about to be named U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. And several news organizations, including The Associated Press, have reported it as fact over the years.

But an investigation by the Albuquerque Journal found no record of Richardson being drafted by the A's, who have since moved to Oakland, or any other team. In other words he is full of sh*t, but he does see something special in Barack:
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First a Tense Talk With Clinton, Then Richardson Backs Obama NY Times
PORTLAND, Ore. — “I talked to Senator Clinton last night,” Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico said on Friday, describing the tense telephone call in which he informed Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton that, despite two months of personal entreaties by her and her husband, he would be endorsing Senator Barack Obama for president.

“Let me tell you: we’ve had better conversations,” Mr. Richardson said.

The decision by Mr. Richardson, who ended his own presidential campaign on Jan. 10, to support Mr. Obama was a belt of bad news for Mrs. Clinton. It was a stinging rejection of her candidacy by a man who had served in two senior positions in President Bill Clinton’s administration, and who is one of the nation’s most prominent elected Hispanics. Mr. Richardson came back from vacation to announce his endorsement at a moment when Mrs. Clinton’s hopes of winning the Democratic nomination seem to be dimming.

But potentially more troublesome for Mrs. Clinton was what Mr. Richardson said in announcing his decision. He criticized the tenor of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign. He praised Mr. Obama for the speech he gave in response to the furor over racially incendiary remarks delivered by Mr. Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.

And he came close to doing what Mrs. Clinton’s advisers have increasingly feared some big-name Democrat would do as the battle for the nomination drags on: Urge Mrs. Clinton to step aside in the interest of party unity.

“I’m not going to advise any other candidate when to get in and out of the race,” Mr. Richardson said after appearing in Portland with Mr. Obama. “Senator Clinton has a right to stay in the race, but eventually we don’t want to go into the Democratic convention bloodied. This was another reason for my getting in and endorsing, the need to perhaps send a message that we need unity.”

In many ways, the decision by Mr. Richardson, a longtime political ally of the Clintons, was as much a tale about his relationship with them as it was about the course of Mr. Obama’s campaign.


Mr. Clinton had told his wife’s campaign that he had received several assurances from Mr. Richardson that he would not endorse Mr. Obama.

One adviser who spoke to Mr. Clinton on Friday said that the former president was surprised by the Richardson endorsement, but described Mr. Clinton as more philosophical than angry about it.

Mr. Richardson looked anguished when asked in an interview if his relationship with the Clintons would withstand endorsing Mr. Obama. In doing so, Mr. Richardson was not only taking sides in the most bitter of political fights, but rejecting the candidacy of a close friend.

“There’s something special about this guy,” Mr. Richardson said of Mr. Obama. “I’ve been trying to figure it out, but it’s very good.”


Mr. Clinton helped elevate Mr. Richardson to the national stage by naming him his energy secretary and ambassador to the United Nations. And Mr. Clinton left no doubt that he viewed Mr. Richardson’s support as important to his wife’s campaign: He even flew to New Mexico to watch the Super Bowl with Mr. Richardson as part of the Clintons’ high-profile courtship of him.

But Mr. Richardson stopped returning Mr. Clinton’s calls days ago, Mr. Clinton’s aides said. And as of Friday, Mr. Richardson said, he had yet to pick up the phone to tell Mr. Clinton of his decision.

The reaction of some of Mr. Clinton’s allies suggests that might have been a wise decision. “An act of betrayal,” said James Carville, an adviser to Mrs. Clinton and a friend of Mr. Clinton.

“Mr. Richardson’s endorsement came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate, if ironic,” Mr. Carville said, referring to Holy Week.

Mr. Richardson said he called Mrs. Clinton late on Thursday to inform her that he would be appearing with Mr. Obama on Friday to lend his support.

“It was cordial, but a little heated,” Mr. Richardson said in an interview.


Mrs. Clinton had no public schedule on Friday, and spent the day at her home in Chappaqua, N.Y. Her chief strategist, Mark Penn, played down the importance of the Richardson endorsement, suggesting that the time “when it could have been effective has long since passed.”

Mr. Richardson called Mr. Obama about two weeks ago to tell him that he was “99 percent with him,” Mr. Obama’s aides said. The announcement was delayed because Mr. Richardson had been scheduled to go on vacation in the Caribbean. Even though Mr. Richardson had promised Mr. Obama that his mind was made up, Mr. Obama’s aides said they grew worried that the furor over the racially inflammatory remarks made by Mr. Obama’s former pastor might lead Mr. Richardson to reconsider.

But Mr. Richardson, who had sought to become the nation’s first Hispanic president, pointed specifically to the speech that Mr. Obama gave in Philadelphia on Tuesday in explaining why he endorsed him.

“Senator Barack Obama addressed the issue of race with the eloquence and sincerity and decency and optimism we have come to expect of him,” he said. “He did not seek to evade tough issues or to soothe us with comforting half-truths. Rather, he inspired us by reminding us of the awesome potential residing in our own responsibility.”

He added: “Senator Obama could have given a safer speech. He is, after all, well ahead in the delegate count for our party’s nomination.”
more of all the news fit to print


24 comments:

  1. Only 1,921 Virgin Islanders attended the Democratic caucuses. But thanks to his lopsided win, Obama netted three delegates.

    While three delegates may not seem significant in a Democratic race where 2,024 delegates are needed to clinch the nomination, it's worth taking a moment to channel your inner David Plouffe.
    According to ABC's pledged-delegate estimate, Obama netted more delegates in the Virgin Islands than Clinton did from her "wins" in New Hampshire, Michigan, Nevada, Florida, New Mexico, and American Samoa C-O-M-B-I-N-E-D.

    TiVo alert: Tune into ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" on Sunday morning. George's guests will be Chuck Schumer, Jon Kyl, and Chuck Hagel.

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  2. The small price Hillary is paying for inclusion.

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  3. According to a Kos Man, this Video Puts things Wright.

    Thank you for stating the obvious!
    Wright was quoting Ambassador EDWARD PECK……..the video is on youtube…when he said “GOD damn America” and others.
    PEOPLE crucified Wright and OBAMA, based on a QUOTE….
    IGNORANCE BEGETS IGNORANCE!
    DON”T you people feel stupid!
    I knew the words were not in context, or the NEWS would have played the WHOLE speech. IT was actually a speech right out of the BIBLE, if the NEWS had played the WHOLE thing!!!
    See what happens when you ASSUME!

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  4. If it ticks off James Carville, it can't be so bad.

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  5. Duece,

    I'd swear you were rooting for Hillary.

    Can we expect you to defend all views as expressed by those on your board of directors?

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  6. From the video:
    Wright, quoting Psalms, "happy shall they be that take your little ones and dash them against the rocks."

    The fact that he was quoting Ambassador Peck doesn't alter his essential anti-America views. Wright wasn't quoting Peck when he said:

    We took this country by terror...
    We took Africans and enslaved
    We bombed Grenada and killed women and babies
    We bombed Panama...
    We bombed Quaddafi's home and killed his son.

    ...And we never batted an eye."

    The man is twisted with his hatred.

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  7. Iraqi police say US kills Sunni allies

    BAGHDAD - A U.S. airstrike struck two checkpoints manned by U.S.-allied Sunni fighters north of Baghdad on Saturday, killing six and injuring two, Iraqi police said.

    The U.S. military denied the checkpoint it attacked in the Tigris River city of Samarra was manned by friendly members of the so-called awakening councils and said those killed were behaving suspiciously in an area recently struck by a roadside bomb.

    Separately, a roadside bombing northwest of Baghdad killed three U.S. soldiers and two Iraqi civilians, bringing the American death toll since the war's start five years ago closer to 4,000.

    __________________________________
    Are those big bases in the desert ready yet?

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  8. Ash, you haven't figured out whose side I am on yet?

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  9. We took this country by terror...
    We took Africans and enslaved

    The big lie about slavery is that the white man went there to make slaves of the black man. Slavery was a world wide practice that died last in Africa.

    Africans took slaves from opposing tribes. The brotherhood was not all that strong in those days.

    Europeans went to Africa to buy slaves because that is where slaves were sold. Can you imagine four white guys in a bus going to Detroit to take black slaves? It was no different in West Africa. The slave traders were met with open arms and outreached hands. They were no more guilty or less guilty than the sellers. Hard nasty business in a less enlightened era. The truth is bad enough without the illogical myths.

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  10. At a $100 a barrel for oil, the countries in the Middle East should have sufficient scratch to buy and pay for their own security.

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  11. "On Wednesday, reminded of the public's disapproval of the war in Iraq, now five years old, the vice president shrugged off that fact (and thus, the people themselves) with a one-word answer: "So?"

    "So," Mr. Vice President?

    Policy, Cheney went on to say, should not be tailored to fit fluctuations in the public attitudes. If there is one thing public attitudes have not been doing, however, it is fluctuating: Resistance to the Bush administration's Iraq policy has been widespread, entrenched and consistent. Whether public opinion is right or wrong, it is not to be cavalierly dismissed." Mickey Edwards

    **********************************

    Man-oh-man-oh-man.

    We were out walking the near-empty streets of Bogota yesterday evening (Holy Week and everyone's out in the country or at the shore). We passed by a lot of the embassies. The Ecuadorians are still renovating; wonder if they'll return to a full staff when the job's finished? The French embassy looks like an upscale conex; the Italian embassy like a prison HQ (well, so many of them do); the Syrian embassy as unassuming as the Ecuadorians'; the ROK embassy, tall and drab and militarian. The Spanish embassy is nice.

    You can tell a lot, almost everything, in fact, about the relationship between countries by the sizes of their embassies. Ours is a sprawling complex quite aways from the clutter of embassies in north Bogota. Not the nicest part of town over there, nor the worst. It's not ugly; it's not imposing; it sticks mostly to ground level, the grounds being ample enough for a good-sized amusement park. Every non-holiday weekday morning there collect thousands to apply for visas. Non-resident visas, most. (More than any other countries save Mexico and ROK.) Turned down once, twice, three times, they'll keep trying. For years. Miami is the capitol of South America and Orlando is the headquarters of Disney and these are what people want to see. Or want their children to experience. So many of them who pass the background check just can't prove they've got reason enough to come back to Colombia when their sight-seeing's done (or "sight-seeing"). But they're indefatigable.

    So here we've got this big-ass embassy but it is a true reflection of the state of affairs here. The majority of employees are USAID. NAS is another chunk. There's USDA, Customs, Commerce, and of course Consular Affairs. The DAO and MilGroup here are large-ish, comparatively, but not burgeoning. Colombia is the gateway to the north; the embassy is our anchor in the south. But it started small, yes it did.

    Now, that fucking Taj Mahal in Baghdad, whose idea was that? What the PTB had in mind, apparently before they broke dirt, was just such an anchor in Iraq. Facts never followed and that's what can happen when you put the cart before the horse, prematurely count your chickens, etc. We were going to have this out-sized cultural and commercial (and military, yes, yes, just look at Balad) relationship with the Iraqis in our new USGOV Gulf Headquarters (what was wrong with Kuwait, one might ask; but one never does) and if we never expected five (ten, fifteen, twenty) years of war to pay for it, we certainly anticipated the prize.

    Hubris for the ages.

    So, Mr. VP, enjoy.

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  12. I always thought that building the largest embassy in the world there is possibly the most acute lunacy in the world.

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  13. They've got a kind of embassy row there? What's the Swdish embassy look like? And the Israeili, if you know?
    ----------

    I'm reading a book, "Buffalo Coat" by Carol Brink, that's about the beginnings of our town, Moscow, named Opportnity in the book, an ironic title she has told us, as she didn't think much would be really different here from Europe. She grew up here. Picture's in the library. Won some sort of a prize, but no one's ever heard of her outside Latah County. Anyway, she's not bad with characters, and some of the info is kind of interesting. Tried reading it in hight school but couldn't get into it, and, since I've looked at her picture so many times, thought I best plow through it while I still have the chance. She wrote a bunch of kids books too. One kind of interesting scene where a dying woman has visions. Fey. Impressed the doc, central character in the story. He get's killed for his buffalo coat I think. Either he or his assistant for his buffalo coat, which was a big deal then, status symbol. Brink's grandfather, or uncle or somebody had been a doctor and got killed for his buffalo coat. Doing my duty here, plowing through this book.

    She erred when she said there were sage grouse here. (I think)

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  14. Kind of like taking up where Saddam left off, Whit, substituting nationalmania for Saddam's egomania.

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  15. Vote in Taiwan brings fellow to power who doesn't push independence. Won't be a war tomorrow.

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  16. Lunacy, whit?

    I'd say that captures it quite nicely.

    I haven't been by the Israeli embassy, bob, though I've had the pleasure of meeting a small handful of their number. The main synagogue, though, I have. It's very, very nice. And there's a big menorah at the major traffic intersection not far from it. In fact, there are menorahs and David's stars scattered throughout Bogota.

    The Swedish embassy I've not seen; nor the Venezuelan, come to think of it. The Iraqi embassy, yes. The Chinese embassy, no.

    It's not really an embassy row, but an embassy barrio. Where security's thickest and most reliable.

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  17. Bob,

    Your wife might like Vanished Arizona, by Martha Summerhayes. Not sure if you can get it through Amazon, but well worth ordering at whatever online outlet.

    I bought it when we lived out there and visited an aunt-in-law and historian in Sun City. Local museum had it.

    Superb storyteller, back when the language was still generally up to the task.

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  18. And don't think those palm trees didn't cost us a small fortune.

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  19. In case you missed it, Trish:
    ---
    Donner Party of ’08

    At their lowest ebb, they looked back and again saw the straggler, McCain. He was stronger, walking with renewed vigor despite his age.

    He was joined by a grizzled old cuss named Cheney.
    One strange hombre, Cheney had shot a man in the face.
    He’d forgotten that his country was a democracy.
    When he was told that two-thirds of the nation wanted to heed the founders’ advice and avoid prolonged foreign conflicts, he spit on the ground, and said,
    “So?”

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  20. Read it to my husband this morning.

    We both enjoyed it.

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  21. Deuce,
    AND, if they have to ditch at sea, her inflated lips can save the passengers from drowning.

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  22. It was knocked as shabby writing at BC, Trish.
    In the NY Times, ya know, what else could it be?
    ---
    I laughed alot, which is plenty for me.

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