The Bill Richardson Blog

Gov. Richardson has unveiled his high school reform plan for New Mexico. It looks good. It creates a high school “diploma of excellence” for high-achieving students, raises graduation requirements (in MATH!), adds funding for teacher training and AP courses, adds funding for pre-AP courses for kids in underserved areas, and other stuff.

The year of the child continues. Education is, hands down, one of the smartest investments you can make as a state. The money you put into educating children will pay off in the most unexpected and immeasurable ways. Education is a core issue of the Democratic party, an issue of national importance and moral depth, and it is one on which this governor has been absolutely, positively excellent. Bravo; here’s to more to come.

Edit: how about I actually link to the P2008 page…

If you haven’t been over to Democracy for America’s P2008 page, where they keep tons of links about the next presidential race, you’re really missing out. Official sites, unofficial sites, and blogs for EVERY possible candidate, and some I never would have thought of. I mean, Feingold has a dozen blogs, sure. But how about MT Governor Brian Schweitzer? Did you know there’s an Olympia Snowe blog? How about one for Indiana Rep. Mike Pence? How ’bout two?

I have to say, I’m pretty proud that informed citizens have gotten behind Richardson, someone only now coming back into the national spotlight, to the point that we have two national blogs (us and AFR) and three state blogs (WA, TX, and MO), and that they are all true grassroots efforts.

The list of blogs also reminded me why I’ve never used “Draft Richardson” language on this site (at least, I think I haven’t.) One, it’s SO overdone. Two, I don’t like drafts! They’re when you don’t want to fight, but we make you. We’re hoping Richardson want to fight of his own accord, bolstered by our support.

Also, I learned via the site that at the 2004 Democratic Convention, the Gov. distributed free jars of salsa with his picture on them. Ahahaha. Cute move.

Courtesy of the Billings Gazette, a write-up of the Gov’s visit to Montana. Man, this event sounds like it was a great time. The energy and excitement out in Montana are hard to match. It really shows you where the future of the party is:

“The Western Governors Association has pledged to produce 20,000 megawatts of clean energy by 2015.”

Governors from both parties have pledged this, he said, and it will be energy from many sources: solar, wind, biomass, ethanol and others.

The leadership for this has to come from the West, he said, promoting fuel efficiency, green buildings and clean coal synfuels.

“I want us (New Mexico) to be the Saudi Arabia of wind, solar and biomass,” he said. Richardson is not averse to providing tax credits for those who use solar power for buildings and homes.

Clean energy, tax cuts, and independence. Brought to you courtesy of Western Democrats. Anyone against any of those things?

The Gov. got in a basketball-themed jab at the president during the annual Gridiron Roast:

Gov. Bill Richardson (D, New Mexico), compared the Bush’s administration’s treatment of U.S. allies over the Iraq war to the NCAA basketball tournament. “Sixty-four teams start and they’re whittled down to just one. Kind of reminds me of what we’ve done with our allies.” Bush followed by calling Richardson and Chuck Hagel (R, Nebraska) “a couple of independent thinkers, which in my book is a negative.”

Richardson’s joke: Kinda funny, super true. Bush’s joke: Not very funny, but also super true. Who you should root for in the tournament: My alma mater and Pac-10 champion, UCLA. Just so we’re all on the same page.

On an unrelated note, you know what really grills my onions? When people say stuff like this:

Since [Feingold’s] not in the media-anointed “front-runner” pool that includes such tired Democratic Leadership Council hacks and Clinton clones as Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-New York), Bill Richardson (governor of New Mexico) and former vice president Al Gore…

It’s very hip and cute to take shots at the DLC, but I don’t pay attention to it unless there’s at least a couple words attempting to back it up. But more importantly – Clinton clones? First off, CLINTON WAS AWESOME. I will never stop believing that. He made policy mistakes, like many other presidents have, but as a style of politician, which is partly what this guy is getting at, we’ve rarely seen people as charismatic and compassionate, and I wish there were more. Second…Hillary’s married to Bill and all, but as a politician she is no Clinton clone, either in style, base, or even policy these days. As for Bill, well, the brief answer is that Clinton ally and Clinton clone are extremely far apart. Bill has a unique set of skills and experiences – his international negotiation resume first and foremost – that make him a clone of nobody.

I’m sorry we’ve been absent from the blog – it’s a busy time at law school – but we will be back in action shortly.

There are components of Richardson’s ethics package moving through the Senate right now. Among the proposals:

1. People who do business with the state may not contribute to statewide officials, including the governor;

2. Officials, and their family members, must disclose interests in firms seeking state business;

3. Public officials, their employees, and businsesses may not sell goods or services to state agencies the officials are associated with

There are more but these are good, common-sense measures. I’m proud of the Governor for lending some muscle to these steps. “Good government” moves like these are morally required from democratic officials. As people see how deep the corruption in D.C. can get, with the Abramoff scandal and so forth, it’s good for the Governor to take a stand.

I posted an item yesterday featuring Richardson’s first response to the energy components of the State of the Union. It seems that the Governor has had more time to look over the facts and check out what Bush has really been doing–and the former Energy Secretary isn’t happy with what he sees.

“Lofty goals but a weak plan of action,” Richardson, a Democrat who is now New Mexico’s governor, said in a telephone interview with Reuters about Bush’s comments in his Tuesday State of the Union address.

“Look at the stats,” Richardson said. “The Bush administration has been asleep at the switch. We have gone from 54 percent dependence on foreign oil to 65 percent, according to the Energy Information Administration” (EIA), the analytical and statistics arm of the Department of Energy.

Vague promises to do research at the DOE are not going to solve America’s oil crisis. We need an Apollo program–and a President who understands energy.

In the State of the Union last night, President Bush called for (in a rhetorical sense) breaking America’s addiction on foreign oil, and (in a specific sense) calling for a 22% increase in Energy Dept research. Although we’re obviously Democrats here, we’re not reflexive Bush-bashers either, and Bush should get some credit for taking the time to point out this problem.

But we need to do more than point it out and call for a vague increase in research. Oil dependence is a national security crisis, an environmental disaster, and an economic disease. Boosting research is great–but not nearly enough, says Gov. Richardson:

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, speaking on CNN, said that other than calling for a 22 percent increase in Energy Department research, Bush was short on specifics.

“We need an Apollo-type program,” said Richardson, referring to the effort that put an American on the moon.

If someone hasn’t already forwarded you or linked you to Molly Ivins’ indictment of Hillary Clinton’s triangulation politics and our party’s need for real, courageous leadership, do yourself a favor and read it. I won’t pontificate on it; this is not an anti-Hillary blog and it never will be. Nevertheless, her column taps into real frustration we Dems have with our party leaders in Washington, who have a half-dozen administration and Congressional mistakes and scandals on their hands, but STILL won’t step into the gap and propose some reforms, some new progressive policies, anything at all, because they don’t want to be too liberal. Sen. Clinton, on account of everyone thinking she’ll be the 2008 nominee, is the most visible of this kind of Democrat. Remember the flag-burning thing?

Ivins ends her column simply and honestly:

Do not sit there cowering and pretending the only way to win is as Republican-lite. If the Washington-based party can’t get up and fight, we’ll find someone who can.

Here in the West, we’re on top of it, Ms. Ivins.

I’ve been slow to move on this story, since I thought for the most part it was inspired by mean-spiritedness. A while back, the Albuquerque Journal published a story (and many other outlets picked up) a story on Gov. Richardson’s tendency to be tactile with those around him. It’s not that the core of the story is untrue: the Gov is a hands-on guy. The one time I met him, he gave me the Man Shoulder Clap and messed up my hair a little bit.

(Check out the Wonkette picture of the Gov with a little kid. It’s funny and cute.)

It didn’t occur to me at the time that I should be offended or even notice that it was strange. The Journal obviously felt differently, produced a couple of quotes from the Lt. Gov. on the subject, and now there’s this “thing.”

The Los Alamos Monitor ran a rebuttal that’s too good to pass up. It gets at the core of this “issue”: that the governor is just an energetic, fast-forward human being, which is exactly what you want in a state’s chief executive.

But there may be advantages to a governor who is on fast-forward fulltime. We get a lot more work out of him. And we get a lot more work out of the staff with whom he comes in contact.

The Year of the Child, the immigration reforms, the railroad construction, the spaceport: these are things the LA Monitor says are the real stories. And they’re right. (I’m proud to note we’ve caught each of these policy moves as they’ve developed, such that I have a post to hyperlink you to for each.)

As Andrea and I have said many times, we’re not apologists here, and if I really thought there was something to this story, I’d have written about it earlier. I’m just loathe to reprint character assassination masquerading as news. If someone publishes a substantive critique of the governor’s policies, message, politics, or anything remotely relating to his fitness as a candidate and elected official, you can bet you’ll see it here.

Anyway, good on the LA Monitor for keeping watchdog on the local press.