Denish plans for 'a new era of thinking' [Lt. Gov.'s plan to clean up Bill Richardson's mess]

Santa Fe New Mexican ^ | 07/10/2009 | Kate Nash

[NMRed]

It might be the start of a New Mexico political campaign season dominated by talk of ethics.

With a blast of the icy air from inside the state Supreme Court's front door, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish stepped out into the summer heat Thursday and made it clear that it would take a while to outline her lengthy proposal to revamp ethics laws.

"You might want to get into the shade," she told reporters gathered on the front steps.

And a while it took.

Denish, a second-term lieutenant governor, will seek the state's top executive post in 2010, in the wake of a series of political scandals involving fellow New Mexico Democrats.

*snip*

Her announcement comes as rumors swirl of possible indictments in a federal grand jury pay-to-play investigation that has involved members of Gov. Bill Richardson's administration. It also comes as former state Senate President Manny Aragon begins serving a 5 1/2-year federal prison term for his role in an Albuquerque courthouse construction fraud scandal. Additionally, it comes after indictments in a housing authority scandal and a federal corruption probe that snared two former state treasurers.

[NMRed]

At least--unlike, say the New York Times--the local paper identifies the corrupt politicians as Democrats, albeit obliquely.

[tiki]

Please, please tell me they are really going to indict him.

[tiki]

Totally off topic, I saw a t-shirt yesterday, it said:

“New Mexico, it isn’t New and it isn’t Mexico.”

[CedarDave]

For your PING list.

(bouncing along the rails east of St. Paul)

[greyfoxx39]

NM Ping

If you want on or off the NM Ping list, please FReepmail me.

Access to the ping list is available to anyone by going to my FR home page.

[Concho]

Thanks for the ping, Foxy. She isnt going to do anything other than some cosmetic CYA. We have to make sure that this regime is toast in 2010. We have 2 good candidates, and the word has to go out to get them in.

This all has to start with all folks raising hell about the eastern and southern conservative areas of the state having been cut off from New Mexico News to prevent that base from knowing what is going on. The eastern 1/4 of the state and the southern 1/4 of the state has been barred from getting Albuquerque or Santa Fe TV channels. Instead, they are beamed TV coverage from Amarillo, Lubbock and El Paso, Texas, to prevent them from knowing what is going in with New Mexico politics.

[NMRed]

My experience tells me that some low-level patsy will fall on his sword, believing promises that he’ll be taken care of, only to be forgotten wen the spotlight has moved on.

[IYAS9YAS]

For there to be a "new era of thinking" there has to have been an "old era of thinking." From what I've seen, there ain't been much thinking in NM govt. for a long time.

Plotting, conniving, colluding, extorting, yes. Thinking? No.