I was wondering whether the O team might hold this up in contrast to Blago's actions. Richardson hasn't been indicted, the investigation is still at the grand jury stage, so that much is different, but since The Village has already convicted Blago without a trial, why not Richardson as well? Oh wait, I forgot, he's on Obama's team. Nevermind.

especially now that Chicago's dirt is all over the media.

they always had to tho -- the DC Village is where it belongs.

And the anti-woman hits just keep on coming.

I guess this tells us all we need to know about the Democrats commitment to reproductive rights, huh?

But then, why Richardson? Is he especially threatening to Repubs? Or just the most vulnerable (or with the best paper trail)? Obama will just appoint someone else, obviously, would they have any reason to believe that person would be more amenable to their interests? Given Richardson's syncophancy, and the signals so far that Obama's administration is more likely to play along with the Village's interests than against it, why would they care about Richardson? He's unlikely to implement any blazingly liberal policies as Sec. Commerce.

It could be sheer Republican cussedness, sure. Or part of a campaign to pile up the doubts and hamstring Obama as much as possible. But among the many, many kinds of damage the Republicans have done to the justice system by hyper-politicizing investigations and prosecutions is the automatic assumption that any investigative target is innocent and only being targeted based on politics. But the corruption of the Republicans isn't proof of clean hands on the part of Democrats. Corruption accompanies power regardless of party.

I have no idea whether Richardson's hands are clean or not. I'm going to wait on evidence (if there is any) and not just the allegations put forth by the prosecution (same for Blago, seriously), there's no need yet to play those reindeer games.

But IF, and I have no proof on this score whatsoever, part of the reason Richardson is being dumped is because his old friends in power aren't willing to expend their political power to help him after the primaries, and his new friends aren't willing to support him because they never were the great new light of world unity and never gave a cr*p about him anyway, I certainly won't be sad. That would, after all, be the lesson of nearly every afterschool special ever recorded.