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Funds Tie Obama to Richardson Probe Figure Embattled Executive David Rubin Gave Thousands to Campaign By JUSTIN ROOD Jan. 6, 2009— President-elect Barack Obama took big money from a man at the center of a federal probe that has forced one of Obama's top Cabinet picks to withdraw. Financial records show the Obama campaign got more than $30,000 from California financier David Rubin, the target of an investigation into donations and possible "pay-to-play" deals involving New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Obama's pick for commerce secretary. Richardson removed himself from consideration for the post Sunday, saying the ongoing grand jury investigation...

Transition: Bill Richardson's withdrawal as commerce nominee is billed as a stumble for Obama that will leave him in a lurch. It's not, and it won't. Obama just needs to look in better places for good private-sector prospects.Richardson was not the worst person who could have been named to lead the Commerce Department, but he was hardly the best. With the governor mired in a corruption scandal for many months in New Mexico, Obama's acceptance of his withdrawal may have been a response to the potential backlash of multiple political scandals around Democrats in the country. Obama said he accepted...

It was a recipe for a typical New Mexico political stew: Start with two lucrative contracts worth $1.4 million, stir in at least $100,000 in political contributions, add a dash of questionable bid procedures and top it off with a heaping tablespoon of suspicious timing. This is the concoction that boiled over into the federal investigation that has derailed, at least for now, Gov. Bill Richardson's ambitions for a seat in President-elect Barack Obama's cabinet. ~~snip~~The big picture is fairly simple. CDR Financial Products LLC of Beverly Hills was paid $1.4 million from work it did on behalf of the...

May I posit that the withdrawal of Governor Bill Richardson’s name as the nominee to serve as commerce secretary in the incoming Obama administration qualifies as an “epic fail”? Anytime a presidential transition is disrupted by the need to withdraw the name of a nominee for a high-profiled cabinet post, the transition process suffers. Given the nature of the withdrawal and the reasons behind it, the Obama transition has suffered an especially tough blow. Of course, Richardson is not the only symbol of an epic fail around here; the bulk of Barack Obama’s economic program is swiftly moving into epic...

The candidate for secretary of Commerce faced pressure from a federal investigation into one of his political donors. President-elect Obama’s smooth assembly of his cabinet has hit a jarring pothole with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson’s decision to withdraw his name from consideration as the next secretary of Commerce.Governor Richardson announced on Jan. 4 that he would not pursue the Commerce job due to a federal investigation into how one of his political donors landed a lucrative state transportation contract.While insisting he would ultimately be cleared in the grand jury probe, Richardson said the matter “would have forced an untenable...

WASHINGTON (AP) - New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson on Sunday announced that he was withdrawing his nomination to be President-elect Barack Obama's commerce secretary amid a grand jury investigation into how some of his political donors won a lucrative state contract. Richardson's withdrawal was the first disruption of Obama's Cabinet process and the second "pay-to-play" investigation that has touched Obama's transition to the presidency. The president-elect has remained above the fray in both the case of arrested Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the New Mexico case. A federal grand jury is investigating how a California company that contributed to Richardson's...

Just two weeks before he is set to take office, Barack Hussein Obama Jr., the president-elect, has suffered yet another embarrassing blow, as his nomineee for Commerce Secretary has “withdrawn” his name from consideration due to an ongoing federal grand jury probe of his alleged corruption. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a Democrat, today withdrew as Commerce Secretary designate, according to the BBC.com. Richardson’s decision was linked to a pending investigation into a company which has done business with his state. In a joint statement, Obama said he had accepted Mr Richardson’s decision to withdraw “with deep regret”. Richardson denied...

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson on Sunday announced that he was withdrawing his nomination to be President-elect Barack Obama's commerce secretary amid a grand jury investigation into how some of his political donors won a lucrative state contract.

Yet more for fodder for Obama’s attempt to make a world record of scandals involving his presidency and cabinet before the inaugaration. Bill Richardson withdrew his nomination today after a fishy whiff was in the breeze. Now we’ve got another fishy smell higher up the ladder. WASHINGTON: A developer in New York state donated $100,000 to former President Bill Clinton’s foundation in November 2004, around the same time that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton helped secure millions of dollars in federal assistance for the businessman’s mall project. Hillary Clinton helped enact legislation allowing the developer, Robert Congel, to use tax-exempt bonds...

It looks as if Barack Obama and his transition team know how badly Bill Richardson’s resignation reflects on them. They have started leaking to the press that Richardson’s to blame for the embarrassing spectacle this afternoon of his withdrawal as a Cabinet nominee. Jake Tapper has the details: "Sources tell ABC News that officials on the Obama Transition Team feel that before he was formally offered the job of commerce secretary, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was not forthcoming with them about the federal investigation that is looking into whether the governor steered a state contract towards a major financial...

The folowing statements were provided by Gilbert Gallegos, Gov. Bill Richardson's deputy chief of staff. STATEMENT OF PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA It is with deep regret that I accept Governor Bill Richardson's decision to withdraw his name for nomination as the next Secretary of Commerce.Governor Richardson is an outstanding public servant and would have brought to the job of Commerce Secretary and our economic team great insights accumulated through an extraordinary career in federal and state office. It is a measure of his willingness to put the nation first that he has removed himself as a candidate for the Cabinet in...

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...

Trapped in mud up to his crooked hips, Democrat hack William ( Cowboy Bill ) Richardson the governor of New Mexico, has thrown in the towel and asked for his name to be withdrawn from consideration for Commerce Secretary. It is a good bet that other crooked Democrats will be knocking on Chicago thug in Chief Rahm Emanuel's door with bags of money applying for the position now that the bidding has been reopened.

I wrote a column for Christmas Eve about the large increase in the number of political appointees under Gov. Bill Richardson and the growth in the number of appointees making more than $100,000 a year... I expected the column to be noncontroversial. After all, I have written before on the subject. Instead, the column set off a small firestorm... Rushing to the governor's defense were two of his top aides — Bill Hume, a former Journal editorial page editor, and Gilbert Gallegos, [formerly of] the Albuquerque Tribune. Gallegos accused me of having disdain for Richardson's political appointees... Hume said I...

OBAMA-BUST: Bill Richardson will withdraw as Commerce secretary... Developing...

After the campaign, I grew a beard as a rebellion against those consultants who told me I had to comb my hair, shave, lose weight. I said, You know, I’m gonna do what I want now. That was a good feeling. I named my horse after Toby Keith because I really like the guy. Genuine—that’s Toby Keith. One of the great things about him is that during dinner he’ll start singing a song. Right there. Not to perform, but to tell you what he was feeling the particular day that he wrote it. As I’m chatting with Obama, the moderator...

Sen. Byrd during a June 21, 2000 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on then-Energy Secretary Bill Richardson.

President-elect Barack Obama just made it official: Bill Richardson is leaving New Mexico to take a job as U.S. Secretary of Commerce. The text of his announcement is posted below. But the money line of the news conference had to be when Obama said he misses the now clean-shaven governor's beard. Obama interjected in response to a reporter's question directed to Richardson about the missing beard. "I think it was a mistake for him to get rid of it, I thought that whole Western rugged look was really working for him," Obama said, grinning. "For some reason, maybe because it's...

(CNN) - Gov. Bill Richardson showed up to his press conference with President-elect Barack Obama Wednesday morning without the beard he has been sporting since dropping out of the presidential race in January, sparking his new boss to tell reporters he is "deeply disappointed with the loss of the beard." "I'm going to answer this question about the beard," said Obama, when Richardson was asked where the facial hair went. "I think it was a mistake for him to get rid of it. I thought that whole Western, rugged look was really working for him. "For some reason, maybe because...

-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...