It’s getting ugly out there, people. “Obama has embraced Richardson’s approach to governing, and so even without Richardson, the president-elect is welcoming corruption and corporate influence into his administration,” says an opinion piece posted today on dcexaminer.com. The piece argues that one of Richardson’s favorite terms — public-private partnership — “is often a euphemism for corporate welfare, and always an invitation for corrupt pay-to-play deals.”

The GRIPgate investigation likely started during the tenure of former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, hints the Santa Fe Reporter’s post-election news and culture blog, SFReeper.com.

According to SFR’s Corey Pein:

Another tidbit — in a story the other day, The New Mex’s Steve Terrell paraphrased former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias as “stressing he’s not involved in the investigation” into CDR and Richardson.

Reached by SFR, Iglesias clarifies that his comments to Terrell were “strictly about grand jury procedure — I’m not commenting on the investigation and how long it’s been going on.”

Well, we know it must’ve started before November 2006, when the feds raided CDR’s offices in Beverly Hills. If this were an entirely politically motivated investigation, you’d think the timing of those raids would’ve been a little better.

The AmLaw Daily says that pay-to-play allegations against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevitch and Bill Richardson are good business for lawyers. The site reports that former chief of staff, Dave Contarino, who is under investigation in GRIPgate, has lawyered up:

Paul Kennedy, a name partner with Albuquerque’s Kennedy & Han, is representing [David] Harris. Kennedy told The Am Law Daily that Luis Stelzner of Albuquerque’s Sheehan, Sheehan, & Stelzner has been retained by Contarino while Richardson has hired Peter Schoenburg of Albuquerque’s Rothstein, Donatelli, Hughes, Dahlstrom, Schoenburg & Bienvenu as counsel. Kennedy declined further comment.

The Big Bill-hating blog NoToBillRichardson is having a field day with GRIPgate, mostly by reposting stories from other media, but the accumulation is impressive. NTBR has been following Bill since 1998, when it posted about how Richardson gave a U.N. job to a friend of a friend. That friend being Bill Clinton and his friend — Monica Lewinsky.