I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Add another juicy nugget to the Bill Richardson saga.
TPM Muckraker noticed something interesting buried in a Washington Post article “on the incipient infighting between the [Barack] Obama and Richardson camps about who’s to blame for the aborted Commerce Secretary nomination.”
It turns out the FBI agents conducting the background check on New Mexico’s governor for his Senate confirmation hearings bumped into the FBI agents conducting the investigation for the CDR scandal which eventually caused Richardson to pull his name from consideration for the spot of secretary of commerce.
From TPM:
The Post reports:
The seriousness of the matter became apparent after the FBI began its own background check on Dec. 2.
And a little further down:
FBI agents assigned to comb his background learned independently that an inquiry was underway in New Mexico, the [Justice Department] source said.
TPM suggests this might be an indication that the FBI probe is zeroed in on Richardson more than previously thought.
But another thought is perhaps this means that the investigation into the CDR scandal was not disclosed as fully as it should have been by Richardson. I find it hard to believe that the FBI and the Obama transition team would not be aware of the inquiry until the background check began. It could have been done before Obama announced Richardson as his pick, using a simple LexisNexis search.
Also, from the Richardson end, should this not have been disclosed on the extensive questionnaire given to all applicants to Obama’s administration?
