Obama Cabinet Troubles

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has withdrawn his name as the nominee for Secretary of Commerce, citing a corruption investigation that could delay the confirmation process and possibly taint the new president. According to the Associated Press, the probe involves a California company called CDR Financial Prooducts, which allegedly won a lucrative state contract after donating to Richardson's political activities.

A grand jury is investigating the case, which appears potentially to bear some uncomfortable resemblance to the "pay-to-play" allegations swirling around Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

Richardson, a former Congressman and Secretary of Energy under President Bill Clinton, ran for the Democratic presidential nomination last year but dropped out early in the race and later infuriated the Clinton's by throwing his support to Obama at a critical moment. He is one of the nation's most prominent Hispanic politicians.

Below is the text of Richardson's statement, followed by Obama's statement accepting the withdrawal: [more]

AN EASY, QUICK WAY FOR OBAMA TO KEEP HIS PROMISE

In early December President Bush kept his promise and came through for gun owners who supported him by loosening rules allowing loaded, concealed guns in national parks and wildlife refuges.

Now, President-elect Obama needs to keep his promise and come through for gun owners who supported him by allowing this rule to stand as currently written. [more]

FIRST AND ONLY ON NEWWEST.NET

Environmentalists see the Blue Tide as more of a Green Tide, and they not only have their hopes up, but their sleeves rolled up.

A huge coalition of green groups, 98 in all, has just finished a massive analysis of the current regulatory situation governing the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service amd prepared a lengthy quick fix list to President-elect Obama's transition team.

Based on this action-packed letter, Obama's choices for Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of Agriculture will have a lot of homework to do long before they start work in January. [more]

BROTHERS MAKING THEIR MARK FOR COLORADO

The Denver Post is reporting this morning that Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO) is now the leading candidate for Secretary of the Interior. If so, he has bypassed early leaders Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and Interior Deputy Secretary John Berry.

The Post also reports that Congressman John Salazar (D-CO.), Ken's older brother, has been on the short list for Secretary of Agriculture, but now he is more likely to be appointed to his brother's job in the U.S. Senate by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, also a Democrat [more]

KEEP THOSE GUN MAVERICKS UNDER CONTROL

If you've followed my recent columns on gun rights, you know that I have a big bet on the table--not an all-in bet, hopefully, but really big!

Our new administration and Congress has a lot of anti-gun baggage, but I've argued, unsuccessfully so far, that two colossal political realities will keep the Blue Tide from seriously pursuing any new gun laws.

So convinced am I of this that during several email exchanges, online and offline, with gun nuts, I bet them no gun bill would get through Congress any time during the next four years. So Mr. President-elect and Ms. Speaker of the House, please come through for me. Don't make me a big loser.
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WE NEED THIS GUST OF FRESH AIR

Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post and several bloggers are naming Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) as a "leading contender" for Obama's pick for Secretary of the Interior. This cabinet position usually goes to a westerner, and Grijalva would be an excellent choice.

He current chairs the House Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands and has been an outspoken advocate for protecting national parks, wilderness and wildlife habitat in the West, recently opposing the Bush Administration's plans for oil and gas leasing and coal mining in critical areas and resisting deep cuts in national park budgets. [more]

Diary Of A Mad Voter: Heath Haussamen

We've known since the first rebuking of the GOP in the 2006 election that 2008 was going to be a Democratic year. We all knew the party of the right would lose some additional ground in the U.S. House and Senate. But, as the dust settles in New Mexico, it's becoming clear that this was a complete slaughter.

Barack Obama won nearly 57 percent of the vote in a state that went to George Bush in 2004. Democrat Tom Udall took the retiring Republican Pete Domenici's U.S. Senate seat with 61 percent of the vote. Democrats easily won all three U.S. House seats, picking up two that have been in GOP hands for decades. [more]

Here in Montana, and across the Rocky Mountain West, the election of Barack Obama represents the startling culmination of social, cultural and political changes that have been underway in this region for many years. You've heard a lot of this by now: the Mountain West, increasingly populated by amenity-seeking coastal migrants and Latino immigrants, and with an independent-minded electorate that's resistant to Republican over-reaching on social issues, is no longer solid red, but rather "in play." And if the breadth of Obama's victory ultimately rendered the electoral votes of Colorado and New Mexico and Montana and Nevada superfluous, the deeper significance of the changes remain.

It certainly didn't play out the way any pundit might have predicted a couple of years ago. Obama, for starters, is hardly the "Western" candidate that many Western Democrats imagined would be the standard-bearer for the inevitable breakthrough. "You guys have a nice deal around here," Obama said in Missoula last spring, with all the wonder of a first-time tourist. He joked about going fly fishing (a river runs through it, after all!), but it's hard to picture him in waders.
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FIRST AND ONLY ON NEWWEST.NET

Anybody who has been following the cyber-firestorm over pro-Obama statements and campaign contributions made by Dan Cooper, president and co-founder of Cooper Firearms of Stevensville, Montana, knows that as part of the collateral damage, life has gotten hectic at Sportsman's Warehouse.

After the story broke on October 28 in USA TODAY and became the subject of my column on NewWest.Net five days later, gun owners angry with Cooper besieged Sportsman's Warehouse's 66 superstores and corporate headquarters with threats of a boycott if the company didn't stop selling Cooper's products. Then, gun owners angry with gun rights activists calling for the boycott went into those same stores threatening their own boycott if America's Premier Outfitter didn't continue selling Cooper products.

You got to feel for Sportsman's Warehouse, obviously caught in the middle of a controversy they didn't create, so I called CEO Stuart Utgaard. He was anxious to clear it up for us. [more]

THE SCARIEST THING THAT HAPPENED ON HALLOWEEN

Something extremely scary happened last Friday on Halloween. Dan Cooper, President and Founder of Cooper Firearms of Stevensville, Montana, resigned.

Not so scary, you say. Well, wait until you hear why. If you believe in freedom and that there's a reason why the right to free speech is the First Amendment, prepare to be terrified.

Editor's note: Links to three updates at the end of the story.--Bill Schneider [more]