Role-model governor won’t apologize (Long-knives out for NM Governor)

The Albuquerque Journal ^ | April 27, 2014 | Leslie Linthicum

[CedarDave]

I’ve always thought there must be a special place in this world for women who call other women bitches. And now I’ve found it. It’s the New Mexico Governor’s Office.

And I’ve always wondered if there is any place on the planet where people call other people “retard.” There is. It’s on the communications staff of the New Mexico Department of Human Services, which serves developmentally delayed clients.

We know this thanks to a Mother Jones magazine story that included leaked email exchanges and sound bites from debate preparation sessions while Susana Martinez was running for governor in 2010.

There was a lot of vaguely embarrassing stuff on the taped snippets and leaked emails – Martinez, then the district attorney in Doña Ana County, wasn’t familiar with WIPP, the Commission on the Status of Women or the Hispano Chamber of Commerce and smacked on schoolteachers for getting the summers off.

Her campaign team displayed potty mouths, aggression toward women in an email (“I (EXPLETIVE) HATE THAT BITCH!”) and revealed a disregard for voters by conspiring to create a fake public statement to cover her if anyone accused her of breaking a campaign promise not to cut benefits for teachers.

Martinez can be heard referring to her opponent, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, as “that little bitch.”

Her deputy campaign manager, Matt Kennicott, can be heard making fun of how Speaker of the House Ben Lujan (now deceased) speaks. Kennicott tells Martinez that he’s been told Lujan speaks beautiful Spanish but speaks English like “a (expletive) retard.”

Martinez, after the Mothers Jones report, brushed off her “B-word” utterance and promised to feed the cuss jar. Kennicott, now spokesman for the state agency that oversees behavioral health services, said ... that he’s sorry if it offended anyone.

[CedarDave]

Hard-nosed characterizations in private conversations - Oh the horror!! Another front-page story at this Sunday's ABQ Urinal.

By the way, these were from campaign discussions held in 2010, likely recorded by the same campaign manager she fired who federal prosecutors subsequently indicted for illegally intercepting her private emails. The emails ended up in the hands of a union-backed political activist, a lawyer who would become the state Democratic Party chairman and Attorney General Gary King, who hopes to win the party’s nomination to run against Martinez in 2014.

[leapfrog0202]

It’s ridiculous that they are running this again or still, whichever it is.

You know darn well most, if not all, politicians have had these types of conversations in private with TRUSTED staff and/or family. The problem here is who she chose to trust and which person betrayed her.

No, I don’t love the word retard, but it’s a fact of life that people use that word as well as bitch and other terms. I see nothing here to make a fuss about and wonder where these people were when Richardson and his cronies were pulling things in NM that were both illegal and immoral?

[CedarDave]

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[zeestephen]

Is Martinez running for reelection in 2014?

Also, is it fair to say that most Republicans - inside and outside New Mexico - do not realize that 61% of Hispanics voted AGAINST Martinez in 2010?

[Lets Roll NOW]

Hillary never talks like that.

[leapfrog0202]

She is running for reelection.

[CedarDave]

From a positive story by Jonathan Tobin at the link:

But that doesn’t stop Mother Jones from attempting to dig up every piece of dirt on her they can find. The results of that search were pitifully insignificant. Other than some backbiting from disgruntled Republicans who are outside her inner circle, the best they can do is to produce tapes of her using harsh language about opponents and rivals. In other words, there’s not much here to talk about. But what they do produce is the sort of mean-spirited sniping that would be labeled as sexist were it directed at a liberal Democrat.

Perhaps Martinez is as “petty” and “vindictive” when it comes to dealing with foes and rivals as the magazine claims. But in another context, those same quotes might be seen as a sign of a strong, decisive personality who takes no prisoners. In other words, were she a man, she might be thought of as a tough customer rather than being depicted as one of the mean girls in a high school drama.

Martinez and the War on GOP Women

[zeestephen]

Thanks for the update.

[TBP]

They’cared of her. A minority Republican female governor? Liberals view that as theft from them.

[Let's Roll]

As if Shrillary, Nancy etal don’t say the b word or worse.

I don’t care about any of this and I’m a girl. I voted for Susana before and I will vote for her again. As soon as I saw this story in the ABQJournal the first time, courtesy of “Mother Jones” no less, I fired off a check to Susana.

Denish should be flattered. IMO calling a woman a *itch usually means she has a much more colorful personality than Denish who has to be the most boring female pol in NM. (Well, Patricia Madrid may run her a close second.)

[CedarDave]

Also, is it fair to say that most Republicans - inside and outside New Mexico - do not realize that 61% of Hispanics voted AGAINST Martinez in 2010?

In March of this year she had the support of just 38% of Hispanics. Poll Casts Doubt on Martinez's Sway With Latinos

And that's why it's Republican insanity to grant amnesty to illegals - they will never wholeheartedly support a Republican Hispanic for president let alone an Anglo.

[SunkenCiv]

The author of this hit piece (actually more like “Son of Batman”, since it just tried to keep meme-building from the M Jones hit piece):

[snip] Leslie Linthicum, a twenty-four year-old reporter, posed as a high school student to examine the role of cliques, drugs, bureaucracy and other hidden everyday realities of a local high school.”classmates.” [/snip]

http://dlib.nyu.edu/undercover/undercover-student-leslie-linthicum-albuquerque-tribune

http://coe.unm.edu/uploads/docs/coe-main/news/educ-101-lithicum.pdf

[EQAndyBuzz]

This isn’t about 2014. The rats are culling the Republican herd for 2016 and eliminating any female that could oppose a rat.

Do not be surprised if Nikki Haley gets the same treatment in the next year or so.

[zeestephen]

Exactly.

She has Mexican ancestry on both sides of her family.

She's a former Democrat.

She refused to take a public position on Albuquerque's third term abortion ban.

I'm not from New Mexico, so everything I know about her is secondhand.

But, to me, it looks like she's a Center-Left Republican on almost every issue except, maybe, taxes and spending.

And still the Hispanics reject her.

[CedarDave]

That UNM pdf shows her liberal education agenda - good catch.

[Nifster]

Because we all know dimorats would NEVER talk like that (do I really need a sarcasm tag?)

[greeneyes]

Big Hairy Deal. Politics ain’t bean bag. This is pale beside what left wing Dems say in public.

[kcvl]

[greeneyes]

Does Hillary talk worse than that? You betcha.

[HotKat]

She cares for her handicapped sister.

http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20721515,00.html