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The Democratic Don Quixote
Despite his résumé, an aw-shucks Bill Richardson has bumbled through the early presidential race. But can his bold position on Iraq make him a contender?
By Michael Scherer [2007-06-05]

  • Richardson will need more than Sancho Panza to bail him out

    As media scrutiny of candidates intensifies, even among the lackluster MNM hacks who stared blankley as Monica Goodline "explained" voter caging, how long will it be before Richardson's extremely cozy relationship with influence-buying GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut Corrections) comes under the microscope?

    Richardson has taken $75,000 from these characters, shilled for a new pen in remote Clayton, NM, and installed a former GEO warden, Joe Williams, as head of his corrections department.

    (GEO is very bipartisan. In Kansas they gave 98% of their campaign contributions to Republicans as they sought to have excluding statutes repealed. In California they gave Schwartzenegger $90,000, the last $30,000 while they were negotiating contracts with him. They go directly to power.)

    Manny Aragon, another NM pol with similar GEO ties who is the former Speaker ProTem of the NM Senate, was recently indicted.

    While Richardson's professed goals sound terrific, rapid withdrawal from Iraq in particular, why should voters believe anything he says?

    And then there's the little matter of Wen Ho Lee.

    -- Frank Smith, Bluff City, KS
    [Read Frank Smith, Bluff City, KS's other letters]
    Tuesday, June 5, 2007 03:13 AM
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