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Bill Richardson is withdrawing his nomination to be commerce secretary, FOX News confirmed Sunday. Richardson, who will remain governor of New Mexico, is facing a federal grand jury investigation into whether he exchanged government contracts for contributions to three Richardson political committees. Richardson denies any wrongdoing but the investigation won't be finished before he has to go to a Senate confirmation hearing. "Let me say unequivocally that I and my administration have acted properly in all matters and that this investigation will bear out that fact," Richardson said in a statement. "But I have concluded that the ongoing investigation also...

Bill Richardson is now being investigated by a federal grand jury for pay to play allegations. CDR Financial Products donated $100,000 to register Hispanic and Indian voters in 2004 and thus received $1.5 million dollars in fess from the New Mexico Finance Authority in 2004. Can't post article because it is from Bloomberg.

-SNIP- Everything that happened in Chicago and Washington last week makes it look like Richardson's chances of getting the job he's been auditioning for his whole career are as dead as those turkeys in the Sarah Palin video. It looks like President-elect Barack Obama is going with Hillary Clinton for the prestigious post of secretary of state, if she wants it. It's a good pick, but a blow to the guy who played footsie with throwing his support to her, then ditched her, then campaigned his tail off for Obama wearing that big, black beard. It's a good pick, but...

WASHINGTON -- The battle for America's top diplomatic post spilled into view Tuesday, as some Hispanic leaders made a public push to have President-elect Barack Obama name Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico, as his secretary of state. [Bill Richardson] Bill Richardson Sen. John Kerry, an early backer of Mr. Obama who failed in his own bid for the presidency four years ago, sought to deflect reports that he is lobbying for the job. "I haven't talked to anybody. I've had no conversations. It's all speculation, and I have nothing further to say," Sen. Kerry told the Associated Press...

In an uncredited episode of The Twilight Zone, James Carville was just on the phone with CNN News regarding the trial balloon from The One's campaign that Bill Richardson -- arguably the biggest doofus ever to hold a Cabinet seat -- may be Obama's Secretary of State. Richardson gives incompetent political hackery a bad name. As Clinton's Secretary of Energy, he allowed nuclear material to go missing on a regular basis while doing everything he could to hurt the domestic nuclar power industry. As a US Congressman he was informally voted Second Dumbest Member of Congress (after Joe Kennedy). He...

SNIP By cellphone from Bulgaria, he said: "There's sort of a rumor around that I'm maybe thinking about running to be governor of New Mexico? Well, it's sort of true. It's been my home 25 years. I really love my state. Poor, hardworking, decent people - Native Americans, carpenters, artists, expats mixed in with hundreds of the world's smartest physicists at Los Alamos. I've always thought of myself as functioning as a candidate for them. "The media interests me and it's influenced politicians since the '60s, and I'm approaching this as a worthy serious endeavor. I would be very comfortable...

Weeks before Barack Obama won the presidency, he met privately in Washington with his former Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, and Latino political leaders who had fervently backed her bid. The cards were laid upon the table, according to one of the participants. The Hispanic leaders said they expected at least two Latinos to be named to an Obama Cabinet — meeting the standard set by President-elect Bill Clinton in 1992 — but preferred three. Of course, they also wanted sub-Cabinet-level posts. In return, Obama needed assurances that Hispanics — who had overwhelmingly voted for Clinton...

Weekly town hall meeting-style debates for the last two months, as proposed by Sen. John McCain, would have done much to inform the public about the issues — and about McCain's long, clear record as a moderate who works across party lines. Sen. Barack Obama, whose record is very thin, shrewdly rejected the joint tour that could have given swing voters a more substantial comparison of the candidates. The Republican hasn't fared well in the traditional campaign that ensued, though voters caught a glimpse of the real McCain when he firmly told a supporter there was no reason to "fear"...

Please join Senator John McCain for a Road to Victory Rally in Roswell, NM on Monday November 3rd. Doors open at 3:00 p.m.

As part of our ongoing investigation into issues surrounding voter fraud, we have discovered a VERY disconcerting situation. And this time, it's not in Ohio... It looks like out-of-state volunteers and staffers are registering and casting ballots in the battleground state of New Mexico, too. One example is Shayne Adamski. He lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, is actively involved in politics and was a California delegate at the Democratic National Convention just 2 short months ago. Adamski is also a paid employee on the Obama campaign, and he traveled to New Mexico to help get out the vote...

Mesilla, N.M. - With just nine days left in the race, the McCain campaign plans to step up its attacks against Barack Obama for his connection to Tony Rezko, the convicted developer who was an early patron of the Illinois senator. A senior campaign official said the campaign will begin sending out direct mail, running television ads and making robo calls about Obama's Hyde Park home purchase, which took place the same day Rezko bought the vacant lot next door and later sold a portion of that land to Obama. Obama later conceded was "a lapse in judgement" on his...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Sen. John McCain on Saturday said he would "test" enemy countries when elected president, trying to turn Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s gaffe against the Democratic ticket. "I'm going to test them, they're not going to test me," Mr. McCain told a crowd in Albuquerque. Last weekend Mr. Biden told campaign donors in Seattle that enemy nations would concoct an international crisis to test Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama: "We're going to have an international crisis to test the mettle of this guy. I guarantee you it's going to happen." Mr. McCain...

ALBUQUERQUE (Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee John McCain on Saturday raised the prospect of a complete Democratic takeover of Washington as a reason to elect him over Democrat Barack Obama in 10 days. ... At an Albuquerque rally, McCain accused the Illinois senator of seeking to raise taxes on most Americans, particularly small businesses responsible for much of the hiring during a severe economic downturn in which hundreds of thousands of jobs have been shed. ... McCain said having Democrats in control of the White House, the U.S. House of Representatives under Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and the Senate...

-SNIP-Running for seats now held by Republicans, both Democrats have commanding leads as their party tries to approach a filibuster-proof 60-40 majority in the U.S. Senate. In New Mexico, Tom has a double-digit lead over Republican Rep. Steve Pearce. And Mark is well ahead of former Rep. Bob Schaffer in Colorado with less than two weeks until the election.No one disputes that the climate favors Democrats enough to boost their congressional majorities by wide margins. Their confidence is reflected in what Tom Udall says is a request he's already made to Senate leaders for a seat on the coveted Appropriations...

What will it take for the media to start covering incidents like this? EXCLUSIVE: .22 Gunshot, paint balls fired at McCain / Palin Straight Talk Express. (Sunday, October 19 - Filed by Mark Williams in Raton, New Mexico with the Stop Obama Tour) We learned at this morning’s Stop Obama Rally here that the McCain/Palin Straight Talk Express came through town yesterday. It arrived with a window shattered by a .22 caliber weapon. It had also been hit by an unknown number of paint balls from a paint ball gun or guns. There were reportedly no injuries and neither candidate...

Joe the Plumber, meet Ed the Dairyman. Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin spoke to a crowd of about 10,000 supporters Sunday in a Roswell airplane hangar, not only making a reference to Joe the Plumber, but alluding several times to "Ed the Dairyman" after seeing someone in the crowd holding a sign identifying himself that way. She warned voters about Democratic plans to raise taxes "on America's hard-working families and our small businesses and a lot of folks just like Joe the Plumber and Ed the Dairyman out there." Joe Wurzelbacher, a plumber from Holland, Ohio, became a media...

VP candidate Palin introduces 'Ed the Dairyman' ROSWELL, N.M.—Joe the Plumber, meet Ed the Dairyman. Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin spoke to a crowd of about 10,000 supporters Sunday in a Roswell airplane hangar, not only making a reference to Joe the Plumber, but alluding several times to "Ed the Dairyman" after seeing someone in the crowd holding a sign identifying himself that way. She warned voters about Democratic plans to raise taxes "on America's hard-working families and our small businesses and a lot of folks just like Joe the Plumber and Ed the Dairyman out there." Joe Wurzelbacher,...

Sarah Palin will make an appearance today in Roswell, NM, which since 1947 has been associated with an often alleged crash of a UFO. The Daily Kos mob is already mocking her for this -- do they do anything else but mock? -- but I think it shows great imagination. This could draw the attention of some voters who are interested in UFOs and every vote counts.

Road to Victory Rally: Sunday October 19th in Roswell, NM What: Road to Victory Rally: Sunday October 19th in Roswell, NM When: October 19, 2008 1:00 p.m. Where: Great Southwest Aviation 100 Southwest Way Roswell , NM 88203 Please join Governor Sarah Palin for a Road to Victory Rally in Roswell, NM Sunday October 19th Great Southwest Aviation 100 Southwest Way Roswell, NM 88203 Doors Open at 1:00 p.m. Program Begins at 2:30 p.m.

Over at Tapped, A. Serwer, fresh off calling me a racist for saying that Gwen Ifill should not have moderated the debate because she didn't tell the Commission on Presidential Debates about her book on "The Age of Obama," declares that I am paranoid, too. He writes, "there isn't a single instance of organized voter fraud that Geraghty can actually point to, despite being up in arms about it. That's "paranoia"." Today, news out of New Mexico, the state GOP looked at information for 92 newly-registered voters in one district, and found 28 had "missing or inaccurate Social Security numbers...