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.