Richardson is Out at Commerce

Governor Bill Richardson will apparently still be Governor Bill Richardson and not Secretary Bill Richardson. He's withdrawing his name from the appointment to Commerce Secretary because of an investigation into alleged corruption. Richardson says he did nothing wrong and that he's withdrawing because he doesn't want a drawn-out confirmation process that might hurt President Obama. The right and the media will jump on this as an Obama scandal, which it isn't. We couldn't have expected a totally smooth transition, and I think Richardson is handling it in a way to minimize damage to Obama, which is good. Hopefully this will turn out to be nothing and the story will die out quickly.