Bill Richardson withdraws from Nomination for Commerce Secretary

So the casualties in the Obama administration has begun.  Bill Richardson withdrew his name for the position of the Commerce Secretary, due to a federal investigation.  The investigation is trying to determine whether a firm, CDR Financial Products, a California firm, was awarded lucrative contract from Richardson’s state due to the firms’ contributions of $110,000 to three political committees Richardson formed.

As such, Richardson had no choice but to bow out of the position for Commerce Secretary.  If — that’s a big if — Richardson was asked to, more or less, vacate from the position by the Obama administration, I applaud their effort for making the move swiftly.  There is more than enough political scandal going on with the Governor of Illinois, Blagojevich, regarding President Obama’s senate seat — which is currently being marketed in the media as a big enough distraction for the new administration.  Eliminating any further distractions would be the best choice for this new administration.

Now, what if Richardson had won the democratic nomination for president?  What if he had became president?  It is encouraging that President Obama did not let this one sleep until the senate hearings.  What a mess that would have been.  There is great hope that President Obama will continue to weed out any other nominee that could cause a perception of corruption.

Unfortunately for Richardson, there is just too many crisis on the American plate for this new administration to be fighting right now.  Hence, Richardson battle of corruption or non-corruption will have to be dealt with off the presidential playground, so speak.  It goes without saying that there is no logical reason for the Obama administration to start off as badly as the Bush administration back in 2001.

I’m sure the wing nut tribe is experiencing fits of ecstasy over the matter, with the unrealistic viewpoint that only democrats are corrupt.  They tend to forget  their own corrupt politicians.  Of course such investigations does leave one to wonder where the hell the feds where when Bush and Cheney were stumping all over the constitution right into the mud; much less, where were they regarding Cheney’s involvement in Halliburton.

I digress, what’s needed is a little reality.  Corruption is not isolated to party affiliation.  Of course everyone’s innocent until proved to be guilty.  Although being proved guilty has never stopped some of our politician for running for seats.  Nor is it a new concept to the American political scene.

President Obama issued the following statement regarding the matter.

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 order to avoid any delay in filling this important economic post at this critical time. Although we must move quickly to fill the void left by Governor Richardson’s decision, I look forward to his future service to our country and in my administration.