Free Republic

President Obama’s attacks on Romney’s record while at Bain Capital have opened the window on what is being called “Obama’s public equity record”—with Romney’s surprise news conference in front of failed solar manufacturer Solyndra and new campaign ads bringing the Obama administration’s record into the spotlight. Suddenly the “green jobs” record is being carefully examined and “giving taxpayer money to big donors, and then watching them lose it” is back in the news. In his book, Throw Them All Out, Peter Schweizer says: “These programs might be the greatest—and most expensive—example of crony capitalism in American history. Tens of billions...

Ex-Gov. Bill Richardson is one of several former top U.S. government officials pocketing large fees to speak in support of an Iranian group that is listed by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization. Richardson, a former energy secretary and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was in Washington, D.C., in January and in Paris in February to call on the State Department to remove the Mojahedin-e Khalq, or MEK, from the terror list. During the ’70s, the MEK killed U.S. military personnel and U.S. civilians working on defense projects in Tehran and supported the takeover in 1979 of...

San Diego (CNN) -- Mitt, we hardly knew ye. Or should I say, "primo!" As much as it embarrasses me to admit it, given some of his views and how he expresses them, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and I could be distant cousins. Romney's father, George, was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, and so was my grandfather, Roman. Que? You didn't know that Mitt Romney was half-Mexican? It's true. In fact, if he makes it to the White House, in addition to becoming the first Mormon in the Oval Office, he could also be the nation's first Hispanic president. Don't...

This is the fourth federal investigation of former Gov. Bill Richardson or his administration ... One ended with no charges but a strongly worded letter that the state’s procurement system had been corrupted. It did cost Richardson a position as commerce secretary under President Barack Obama. A second investigation ended with two heavily redacted federal appeals court decisions and no charges. A third, involving state investments, entered the federal investigation equivalent of interdimensional space where we may never hear of it again. And now we are on No. 4, which centers on how Richardson and friends paid off a threatened...

A federal grand jury is investigating former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson over possible campaign-finance violations stemming from his 2008 presidential run, including allegations that he arranged for supporters to pay off a woman who planned to say they had engaged in an extramarital affair... Several of Mr. Richardson's close associates have been granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for their testimony

A federal grand jury in Albuquerque is investigating former Gov. Bill Richardson’s presidential campaign for possible financial irregularities. The grand jury has been hearing testimony in secret since at least September, and a number of witnesses have been granted immunity, according to defense attorneys familiar with the general outlines of the investigation. Neither the U.S. Attorney’s Office nor the FBI would confirm or deny the existence of the latest investigation. But the Journal has learned that one area under scrutiny is whether money from campaign supporters was used to settle a threatened lawsuit against Richardson in the fall of 2007...

Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Tuesday that he would leave Cuba after exhausting all possible avenues to try to win the release of a jailed U.S. government subcontractor, adding that he was treated so poorly he doubted he could ever come back to the island as a friend.

Gov. Susana Martinez’s push to repeal the 2003 law that allows illegal immigrants to obtain New Mexico driver’s licenses is generating opposition from the state’s Roman Catholic hierarchy. The state’s Catholic bishops, an active voice in many hot-button political issues in recent years, are urging Martinez and state lawmakers not to scrap the controversial law, contending it benefits public safety and the economy. A statement released this week and signed by Archbishop Michael Sheehan, Bishop Ricardo Ramirez of Las Cruces and Bishop James S. Wall of Gallup, asserts the law leads to more drivers having auto insurance and allows immigrant...

How does a company bidding on a $38 million state road contract end up with confidential documents regarding the job? Taxpayers deserve an answer if New Mexico wants its public procurement process to have any credibility. It is undisputed that FNF Construction, the second-lowest bidder and the company the Richardson administration tried to give the job of rebuilding 18 miles of Interstate 10 south of Las Cruces, got the internal documents. And, according to the story in Sunday’s Journal by investigative reporter Colleen Heild, they would have succeeded except that federal officials who held the purse strings balked at the...

NM judge booked, fingerprinted in political bribery scandal tied to Democrats, RichardsonArticle by: Associated Press Updated: May 20, 2011 - 3:35 PM LAS CRUCES, N.M. - A New Mexico judge charged with bribery in a scandal tied to former Gov. Bill Richardson pleaded not guilty Friday, then was booked, fingerprinted and ordered to hand over his passport. State District Judge Michael Murphy is accused of telling a potential judicial candidate that if she wanted a seat on the bench she needed to donate to the Democratic Party through a political activist linked to Richardson. Allegations in a special prosecutor's report...

Just when Bill Richardson appeared to be in the clear on corruption charges in New Mexico, new allegations of pay-for-play during his administration may envelop the former Governor again. A grand jury indicted a sitting district judge on charges of corruption for buying his appointment from Richardson in 2006, and a whistleblowing judge believes the rot went all the way to the top: Third Judicial District Judge Mike Murphy allegedly said he gave $4,000 to get appointed to the bench by then-Gov. Bill Richardson in 2006, and told several people that other judicial appointees had to give money as well....

The high-flying administration of Gov. Bill Richardson left town without paying all its air travel tabs. Nearly $24,000 in bills for use of the state jet and other government aircraft still hadn't been paid when Richardson left office Dec. 31, according to the General Services Department. The flights were taken over several years, and one bill was 5 years old. The General Services Department has four airplanes and bills agencies for their use. On April 1, the department sent past-due notices to six executive agencies. The billings covered at least 15 round-trip flights between May 2006 and November 2010 and...

Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson hopes that Osama bin Laden's death will spur President Barack Obama to promote climate change legislation. “My hope is that from this success in the foreign policy arena two days ago, that he will be emboldened to take once again to the Congress legislation — not just to increase a renewable energy standard — but climate change legislation that this country and the world need,” Richardson said Tuesday at a Climate Leadership Gala hosted by the Earth Day Network in Washington. Climate change legislation, particularly anything labeled as toxic as “cap and trade,” is...

About two weeks before he left office, Gov. Bill Richardson's staff handed over his office's records to the State Records Center and Archives. But there was one condition. Richardson agreed to turn over his records under the condition that for the next eight years, only four people would have access or be able to grant access to the documents — Richardson himself; his chief of staff, Brian Condit; general counsel Justin Miller; and scheduler Janis Hartley. Richardson's action is allowed under a state law passed in 1967, Records Center Director Sandra Jaramillo said ... Attempts to reach Richardson and his...

Former Gov. Bill Richardson signed a contract with a child care workers union on his last day in office that the new administration says could cost taxpayers a half-million dollars. The contract covers an estimated 2,600 child care workers under contract with the state Children, Youth and Families Department to provide home care for the children of low-income parents. It sets up an arbitration and grievance process for child care providers who take state payments and establishes a system in which dues are deducted from paychecks and sent directly to their union. Martinez's staff contends the contract will require CYFD...

Once aimed at completion last year, the $209 million taxpayer-financed project in the southern New Mexico high desert stands half-finished. In her first two weeks in office, a wary new governor sacked both the Spaceport Authority's board and its executive director. Records show the ambitious project launched under Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson has faced construction delays and a lack of planning. Competition from other states interested in commercial space flights continues to loom. There's also the prospect that the state may need to spend an additional $10 million to $20 million to build a second runway to deal with the...

Unsettling revelations about the Richardson administration keep coming to light even as the former governor eases back into private life. In the midst of ongoing federal investigations into pay-to-play allegations and insider investment deals involving the State Investment Council and the Educational Retirement Board comes word of a fishy deal that died thanks to some sharp-eyed former state staffers. What was afoot was a plan to invest $100 million of New Mexico taxpayers' money in a Baltimore casino deal. The arrangement included a familiar cast of characters — former State Investment Officer Gary Bland, Canadian developer Michael Moldenhauer, and former...

In his quest to become "anonymous and insignificant" former Gov. Bill Richardson today got himself appointed to be a "goodwill ambassador" for the Organization of American States. Secretary General (José Miguel) Insulza asked former Governor Richardson to assume once again the charge of Special Envoy for Hemispheric Affairs, a position he held from 2006 to 2007. The meeting gave the North American politician an opportunity to share with the head of the hemispheric Organization his gratitude for the trust placed on his experience, which will allow him once again to confront the challenges of regional migration as OAS Special Envoy....

An 88-year old commercial real-estate magnate — and Bill Richardson campaign contributor — convicted of embezzling and stock manipulation is among 19 people who received executive clemency this year from New Mexico's outgoing governor. Eddie Gilbert, who in the 1950s was called "the boy wonder of Wall Street," served two prison sentences for crimes committed in New York decades ago. A Richardson spokesman said Wednesday that Richardson's action regarding Gilbert is not an actual pardon...Richardson does not have the power to pardon federal crimes. The governor of New Mexico also doesn't have the power to pardon crimes committed outside the...

The Hispano Round Table of New Mexico, representing more than 50 groups, unanimously passed a resolution saying the Democratic governor was "ruthless, dishonest, deceptive, dishonorable, contemptuous and abusive" toward their community, failed to create a promised state Department of Hispano Affairs, and misled prominent Hispanic groups with that promise. A spokesman for the governor, Gilbert Gallegos, said Richardson "will not lower himself to respond to such a ridiculous assertion." The resolution said the Hispano Round Table was making "a national and international call to censure Richardson." The resolution demanded he "immediately stop representing and speaking for or on behalf of...