Holder, Blago, Richardson: Triangle of Sleaze
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2011

It was a rough week for the corruptocracy. White House officials better ho-ho-hold on tight because the sleigh ride isn’t going to get any smoother.

On Wednesday, disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, D-Ill., received a 14-year prison sentence for scheming to sell President Barack Obama’s Senate office, along with several other pay-for-play schemes. Blago played the distressed daddy for the federal judge, invoking his young daughters and wife (who held her notoriously foul tongue in check) to bemoan how his “life is in ruins.”

How far Blago’s fallen from the glory days of 2008, when he was gloating at the prospect of naming a candidate to fill then-President-elect Obama’s seat. “I’ve got this thing, and it’s f**king golden,” he crowed. All that glitters now, though, are the paparazzi flash bulbs that Blago faces on his perp walks.

Earlier this week, Bill Richardson, former Democratic governor of New Mexico, disgraced former presidential candidate and failed Obama Commerce Secretary nominee, faced new reports of a federal grand jury into his possible violations of campaign finance laws. The funny-money business is tied to an alleged mistress payoff a la disgraced former presidential candidate and Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C.

Additionally, the Wall Street Journal reports, investigators are probing how “Richardson’s close allies steered more than $2 billion of public money into investment funds run by money managers who in turn agreed to pay millions of dollars in consulting fees to high-profile Democratic fundraisers and other supporters of Richardson.”

The star that joined together this little constellation of sleaze? Disgraced U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

Holder and Blago go way back. Holder himself suffered selective amnesia about the relationship during his confirmation hearing. He somehow “forgot” to mention that Blagojevich had appointed him to probe corruption in Illinois casino licensing decisions. State officials had objected to Blago’s crony appointment of fundraiser Christopher Kelly to the state Gaming Board. Kelly’s business partner was now-convicted felon and shakedown artist Tony Rezko, Obama’s former bagman and real-estate fixer.

Holder pocketed $300,000 from Blago to “investigate” and — surprise, surprise — concluded that no corruption existed. They stood shoulder to shoulder at a 2004 news conference to make the announcement. But Holder failed to disclose it on his Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire, which he signed five days after Blagojevich’s arrest in December 2008 for putting Obama’s U.S. Senate seat up for sale.

After duping a Senate majority (including 19 Senate Republicans) into approving his AG nomination despite multiple admissions of failure, neglect and sabotage of the rule of law, Holder moved up to perform more cover-ups for Obama’s pals. In August 2009, Holder’s DOJ announced it was dropping federal corruption charges against Richardson after a yearlong federal probe into pay-to-play allegations involving one of his large political donors and state bond deals.

“It’s over. There’s nothing. It was killed in Washington,” a source close to the investigation told the Associated Press. Even as they tapped Richardson to serve as Obama’s first Commerce Secretary, the White House transition team knew about Richardson’s pay-to-play scandal involving a California company, CDR Financial Products. FBI and federal prosecutors had launched their probe of CDR’s activities in New Mexico in the summer of 2008.

The feds had been digging into a nationwide web of favor-trading between financial firms and politicians overseeing local government bond markets. CDR was tied to a doomed bond deal in Alabama, which, according to Bloomberg News, threatened to cause the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. CDR raked in nearly $1.5 million in fees from a New Mexico state financial agency after donating more than $100,000 to Richardson’s efforts to register Hispanic and Native American voters and to pay for expenses at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, the news service reported.

The state agency that awarded the money consisted of five Richardson appointees and five members of his gubernatorial cabinet. CDR made contributions both shortly before and after securing consultant work with the state of New Mexico. CDR’s president also contributed $29,000 to Obama’s presidential campaign. After Holder dropped the case, New Mexico Republicans blasted the lack of transparency in the decisions and the refusal to heed the advice of experienced, non-political prosecutors and FBI investigators.

Mother Jones writer James Ridgeway’s comment on the day of Richardson’s Commerce Secretary nomination withdrawal proved quite prescient: “It may be premature to say that Obama and his team have too high a tolerance for corruption. But this first self-destruct among his cabinet picks could well prove all the more damaging because it’s something they should have seen coming from miles away.”

The same applies, of course, to Holder himself — who admitted at a House hearing that the Operation Fast and Furious scandal under his watch was “flawed,” “reckless,” “tragic” and deadly.” How much longer will America tolerate this reign of error and terror?

***

Related: The RNC recaps Obama Day on Capitol Hill yesterday…

A no-confidence vote for Holder?

If you want breathless, celebrity tabloid treatment of the first Obama White House state dinner — who wore what, who came with whom, what they ate — go somewhere else. This is a closer look at the cronies, czars & corruptocrats whom Obama wined and dined last night.

- SEIU president/top White House visitor Andy Stern and his lieutenant Anna Burger made the cut. You can learn more about Burger’s shady staff here and refresh your memories on Big Labor’s investment in Obama here. Hope they enjoyed the gala. Stern and Burger have bigger headaches on their plate.

- Bill Richardson and his wife. His Commerce nomination went down in flames, but he has crawled up from under the Obama bus. AG Eric Holder killed the federal probe into Richardson’s pay-to-play dealings. Like Tom Daschle, this Beltway fixture is a human toe fungus. He won’t go away.

- White House legal counsel Bob Bauer and chief Fox-basher Anita Dunn. “The Silencer” and his wife are certainly enjoying the trappings of power. Now, be quiet about it or they’ll crush you.

- Corruptocrat Democrat Sen. Chris Dodd and his wife. The Senator from Countrywide is plunging in the polls over his ethical baggage, but Obama won’t leave him behind.

- Corruptocrat energy czar Carol Browner and husband Tom Downey. She’s the transparency-undermining, document-deleting bureaucrat who has warned auto industry execs to “put nothing in writing, ever.” He’s the disgraced former congressman-turned-lobbyist. From Chapter 5 of Culture of Corruption:

While Team Obama pays lip service to breaking old Washington lobbying habits, Browner and Downey represent the prototypical influence-peddling power couple. In 2006, the pair teamed up on behalf of infamous Dubai Ports World— – the United Arab Emirate-owned company that unsuccessfully sought to take over operations of six major U.S. ports. Browner was a , who was a principal in Clinton pal and former Secretary of State Madeline Albright’s the “international consulting firm,” of her old Clinton pal, and former secretary of state, Madeline Albright. and Browner and Downey, whose own firm lobbied for Dubai Ports World, met with New York Senator. Charles Schumer to try and quell congressional opposition. All deny that lobbying took place. It was “for informational purposes,” an Albright Group spokeswoman told the Wall Street Journal. Yet Downey was named by Washingtonian magazine as one of Washington’s top 50 lobbyists.’

His clients have included foreign governments, drug and insurance companies, and major energy companies including Chevron and the Standard Renewable Energy Group, which will no doubt come under the regulatory purview of his broadly-empowered “energy czar” wife. Obama’s stringent lobbying rules do not apply to spouses. The White House blithely claims that “administration officials will recuse themselves from any issue involving a spouse,” but how exactly can Browner recuse herself from the very core duties of her job, which include targeting carbon emissions, enacting onerous global warming reduction policies, and regulating the very industry her husband represented for years?

This is particularly troubling given Browner’s husband’s past. Conflict of interest and abuse of power seem to be Downey’s specialty. He was a Democrat congressman in New York for nearly two decades before losing his seat during the House banking scandal. Downey racked up overdrafts on 151 checks worth $83,000 at the House bank while his wife held a patronage job as an auditor in the House office that ran the House bank. An undercover ABC News investigation in 1990 showed him lolling on a beach during a congressional junket to Barbados. Reflecting on Downey’s defeat in 1992 and the loss of his long-ago image as an upstart reformer, one of Downey’s congressional colleagues told the New York Times: “You live in Washington, you just get sucked into Washington.””
Thanks to Barack Obama, two more old crony players have been sucked back into the Beltway swamp to wield their joint power and influence.

- White House social secretary and Chicago crony Desiree Rogers and her ex-husband Rogers. I spotlight them in Chapter 2 of Culture of Corruption and reported on them last month in “No Bundler Left Behind:”

Every corner of the Obama administration is stuffed with crony moneybags. Take the First Lady’s social secretary, Desiree Rogers. More than a party planner, she’s a fund-raising machine in her own right. According to left-wing watchdog Public Citizen, Rogers bundled more than $200,000 for Obama and contributed $28,500 to Democrat committees. Rogers’ ex-husband, John W. Rogers, Jr., chief executive of multi-billion-dollar Ariel Capital Management, played basketball with Michelle O’s brother, Craig Robinson, at Princeton. Mr. Rogers also served as a campaign finance bundler for Team Obama – and hung with President Obama in the White House on Super Bowl Sunday.

An indignant White House says this is about “friendship,” not influence-peddling. But as Obama himself noted in 2007: “It is no coincidence that the best bundlers are often granted the greatest access, and access is power in Washington.”

Indeed, the Obama White House policy can be summed up in four words. No Bundler Left Behind.

– Democrat Rep. Linda Sanchez. She’s not gonna let a little House ethics investigation into an alleged collusion scheme get in the way of partying it up at the White House!

- Subprime queen Penny Pritzker and Marty Nesbitt, Chicago pals of Obama. Guess the invites made up for losing the Olympics. Also on the dinner list: Tom Donilon, Pritzker’s attorney.

From Chapter 6 of Culture of Corruption:

…Obama’s close hometown crony, campaign finance chief, and senior adviser Penny Pritzker was head of Superior Bank of Chicago, a subprime specialist that went bust in 2001, leaving more than 1,400 people stripped of their savings after bank officials falsified profit reports.

Pritzer’s lawyer at O’Melveny & Myers, Tom Donilon, is now deputy national security adviser. He earned just shy of $4 million representing her and other high-profile meltdown clients including, yep, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.

- White House senior advisor Valerie Jarrett. Natch. Wonder if the Stanford alumni blowback came up at dinner? Jarrett’s high-powered Chicago bagwomen Tina Tchen was also on the list.

- White House senior advisor David Axelrod and wife, SEIU/ACORN/WFP “air traffic controller” Patrick Gaspard, and corruptocrat AG Eric Holder and wife, population control freak/stone-walling science czar John Holdren and wife. Makes quite a table, eh?

- Lobbyist Hunter Biden, son of Joe. See Chapter 3 of Culture of Corruption for all the dirty details. A taste:

“Average Joe” Biden wants you to believe he hangs with the regular guys at Home Depot. But the BFFs (Best Friends Forever!) of the Bidens wear pin-striped suits, not coveralls. They carry briefcases, not toolboxes. And you can bet they’re not driving pick-up trucks.

One lucrative cloud seeded by “rainmaker” William Oldaker showered generous benefits on both Hunter Biden and his dad. In 2005–06, the Chicago-based personal injury law firm of Cooney and Conway paid Oldaker, Biden & Belair $220,000 to push its tort reform proposals. At the same time, Cooney and Conway gave Senator Biden’s political campaigns more than $70,000. The firm’s founding co-partner John Cooney told the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin that he struck up a friendship with Biden in 2004 over a legislative battle before Biden’s Senate Judiciary Committee. Cooney was part of a small group that strategized with Biden on campaign matters at his Delaware home. Cooney and Conway represent clients claiming asbestos-related injuries. Biden sided with the trial lawyers, actively opposing measures to reduce frivolous lawsuits and reduce the returns on future lawsuits.

Other heavy-hitting law firms that pitched in to Biden’s campaigns: Baltimore-based Peter Angelos, whose law firm gave Biden $156,250; Wilmington-based Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, which kicked in $127, 979; and Pachulski Stang Zielhl & Jones, which donated $145,625, according to The American Lawyer. Philip Howard, author and founder of Common Good, a bipartisan coalition that advocates for legal reform, summed up his record: “Senator Biden has a pretty clear record of being close to the trial lawyers. To people who are interested in restoring reliability to the legal system, he’s probably unlikely to be the champion.”

Disgraced trial lawyer Richard Scruggs donated $11,500 to Biden in 2008. After Scruggs was convicted of attempting to bribe a federal judge, Biden tried to show his ethical bona fides by donating the money to a worthy charity. But Biden couldn’t steer clear of nepotism. The money ended up with the National Prostate Cancer Coalition—a charity where, The American Lawyer pointed out, Biden’s son Hunter sits on the board of directors.

Another Biden family pal in the trial lawyers’ community: Jeff Cooper. With his partner John Simmons, the 39-year-old Cooper built one of the biggest asbestos litigation firms in the country. SimmonsCooper, based in Madison County, Illinois, has donated a whopping $196,050 to Biden’s campaigns since 2003, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, D.C. In that same time frame, the firm poured $6.5 million into lobbying against the same tort reform bill that fellow asbestos litigators Cooney and Conway opposed—and which Senator Biden worked hard to defeat. Without a hint of irony, Cooper extolled Biden’s anti-tort reform stance: “He understands the plight of the little guy and is against huge corporate interest.” But what Biden did was help fuel lucrative business for the tort bar. When courts in SimmonsCooper’s home base in Illinois finally started cracking down on what had become “America’s No. 1 judicial hellhole” for filing out-of-control tort claims, the firm turned East. And in Joe Biden’s Delaware, they created a new sanctuary. The Wall Street Journal explained:

SimmonsCooper is a big asbestos player, and Madison County was until recently one of America’s meccas for jackpot justice. But the story gets better: Mr. Biden has been helping the tort bar turn his home state of Delaware into a statewide Madison County.

SimmonsCooper made hundreds of millions of dollars on asbestos cases in Madison County, but that started to change in 2004. The business community helped to elect conservative Lloyd Karmeier to the Illinois Supreme Court. Madison County Circuit Judge Daniel Stack also took over the asbestos docket, was determined to clean house, and began dismissing suits filed by residents outside his jurisdiction.

SimmonsCooper and other firms started shopping for a new legal goldmine. And where better than Delaware? Many companies incorporate there, which means a list of defendants usually includes a Delaware target. Beginning in mid-2005, SimmonsCooper began transferring its suits to Bidenland.
The trial bar’s strategy has been to overwhelm Delaware’s once-sensible legal system, taking advantage of rules that pressure companies to settle. In the 22 months following SimmonsCooper’s first asbestos filing in Delaware, the state was hit with 412 suits, primarily from SimmonsCooper and fellow asbestos giant Baron & Budd.

According to the Madison County Record—a legal journal that has doggedly followed this story—clerks in Wilmington were “working nights and weekends to keep up” with the filings. The trial lawyers drew sympathetic judges that have already overseen big verdicts against defendants, primarily Detroit auto makers. Plaintiffs have obtained certain procedures that raise the costs of defense, and restrict defendants’ ability to take discovery.

Cooper first befriended Biden’s sons, Hunter and Beau, before deepening his financial and political relationship with their dad. There’s a personal connection: Cooper’s wife went to high school with Hunter Biden’s wife, Kathleen. And as Biden the Elder was carrying water for the trial lawyers in the U.S. Senate, SimmonsCooper was working another Biden channel through the Wilmington, Delaware, law firm of Bifferato, Gentilotti & Biden, where Joe’s son and Hunter’s brother, Beau, was a partner. SimmonsCooper found Delaware an attractive new magnet for its asbestos litigation racket because many of the firm’s defendants included clients who had incorporated in the state.

SimmonsCooper recruited Beau’s firm to work as co-counsel on Delaware asbestos litigation cases. The Illinois firm steered dozens of cases Beau Biden’s way. He dropped an asbestos defense client to accommodate his deep-pocketed family friend. SimmonsCooper then forked over $35,000 to Beau Biden’s successful run for state attorney general in 2006. Steve Hantler, president of the American Justice Partnership Foundation, observed, “Delaware is fast becoming asbestos lawsuit central.…A tsunami of lawsuits being filed by the SimmonsCooper firm, along with the flow of campaign dollars to Delaware politicians is quite the troubling coincidence.”

Even more troubling was the financial partnership Hunter Biden and his Uncle James (Senator Biden’s brother) attempted to forge with SimmonsCooper. The Bidens approached SimmonsCooper with a proposition: Team up with the family to buy a hedge fund investment firm for $21 million. Cooper agreed to chip in $2 million in exchange for 10 percent interest. The Bidens negotiated the hedge fund buyout of Paradigm Global Advisors with business partner Anthony Lotito Jr. in 2006. As Paradigm chairman, Hunter Biden oversaw half a billion dollars of client money invested in hedge funds while remaining a lobbyist at Oldaker, Biden & Belair.

But things fell apart. In their haste to clean up the Biden image, they ended up with dirtier hands. According to Lotito, the Bidens pursued the venture to help get Hunter Biden out of the lobbying business before Dad launched another presidential campaign. The Madison County Record, which tracked the dealings of the Bidens and SimmonsCooper closely, laid out the timeline:
According to court records filed by Lotito, Joe Biden wanted Hunter Biden to find a different line of work because he couldn’t afford to run for president as father of a lobbyist.

Lotito claims he and James Biden discussed Hunter Biden’s job prospects.

Lotito met James Biden in 2002 and they invested together in 2005, according to Lotito.

Lotito introduced James Biden and Hunter Biden to lawyer John Fascian[a], and the four began planning to buy Paradigm Capital Management.

Majority owner James Parks had started Paradigm in 1991 and successfully promoted it as less volatile than most hedge funds.

Everyone agreed that the Bidens and Lotito would form a corporation to buy 54 percent of Paradigm for $21.3 million in cash.

They would install Hunter Biden as chief executive officer at a salary of $1.2 million.

In April 2006, they formed LBB Limited Liability Corporation.

In May 2006, SimmonsCooper invested $1 million.

In June 2006, according to Lotito, the Bidens told him to stay away.

In August 2006, according to Lotito, the Bidens formed a corporation, executed a promissory note for $8.1 million, and purchased Paradigm’s assets.

In September 2006, Lotito signed an agreement relinquishing his third of LBB.

He sued the Bidens in January 2007, alleging fraud and breach of fiduciary duty.

Lie down with shady partners, get up with a public relations nightmare. Lotito maintained that the Bidens cut a secret deal and tried to fraudulently trick him into signing away his interest in the LLC that they had formed together. In court filings, Lotito’s lawyer asserted that the Bidens used their political clout to intimidate his client: “Ultimately, the Bidens threatened to use their alleged connections with a former U.S. Senator to retaliate against counsel for insisting that his bill be paid, claiming that the former Senator was prepared to use his influence with a federal judge to disadvantage counsel in a proceeding then pending before that court.”

The Bidens shot back that Lotito had neglected to mention that the lawyer he connected them with, John Fasciana, was a crook. Fasciana had been convicted in July 2005 on federal charges of conspiracy and wire and mail fraud over a scheme to cheat Electronic Data Systems (Ross Perot’s computer services company) of millions of dollars. Fasciana was sentenced in 2008 to four years in prison, but has appealed the case. He sued the Bidens for nearly $200,000 in legal fees; they countersued Fasciana for overbilling him and committing fraud by concealing his criminal conviction. Hunter and James Biden also countersued Lotito in February 2007 seeking $10 million. The Bidens asserted that Lotito “hid debts and falsely claimed he held securities licenses to lure them as partners in the planned $21.3 million acquisition,” the Washington Post reported. “Had James and Hunter Biden known the truth about Anthony Lotito, they never would have gone into business with him,” their complaint alleged.

Where did this leave SimmonsCooper, which had kicked in half of a $2 million investment at the request of the Bidens? The Illinois firm had withdrawn from the deal after watching $1 million of its investment allegedly squandered by Lotito. The investment “converted to debt,” which Hunter and James Biden then attempted to shift to Lotito. A New York judge didn’t go along with the Bidens’ attempt to play the victim card. In May 2008, he rejected their bid after concluding they should have vetted the fund more carefully and performed their own due diligence. Cutting through the ploy, the judge ruled that the Bidens’ counterclaims “seek only to foment uncertainty and chaos between the parties in the event that plaintiff is successful in presenting the main claims.…Such pleading will not be countenanced.” Moreover, he ruled, “Certainly defendants do not claim that the law permits sophisticated investors to rely on whatever representations a potential advisor makes without the need for a diligent inquiry by defendants, and that such representations are actionable if they wind up to have been faulty.”

In January 2009, court papers announced that the legal fracas had been settled confidentially —preventing any disclosure or discussion whatsoever regarding the nature of the settlement or the subject matter of the action. The record did note that the lawsuit was resolved “without cost to any party.” For anyone paying close attention, however, the cost to the Biden family’s “just folks” reputation was clear. Alas, the settlement didn’t end the sordid story for the Bidens…

Katie Couric was also in attendance. She was no doubt too busy on the dance floor to ask any questions about the company Barack Obama keeps.

It was “killed in Washington,” we’ve been told.

Who killed it and why?

Show us the sunlight, Team Obama:

ALBUQUERQUE—In response to news reports that high-level Washington DC officials in the U.S. Department of Justice have decided not to allow indictments related to pay-to-play allegations involving Governor Bill Richardson and members of his administration, Chairman Harvey Yates Jr. released the following statement:

“Earlier this year, local governments in California, the city of Chicago and others filed antitrust lawsuits naming 37 banks and financial companies, including CDR, over allegations of bid rigging and fee fixing in local government bonds. CDR also was sanctioned in 2007 by the Securities and Exchange Commission for work on government bonds in Florida in 1999 and 2000.” (Mike Gallagher and Colleen Heild, “GRIP Contract Probed,” The Albuquerque Journal, 8/29/08)

Well, well, well. Another Obama ally off the hook. Last month, it was Chris Dodd who escaped accountability for his Countrywide sweetheart home loan deals. This week, it’s failed Commerce Secretary nominee Bill Richardson. The decision to drop federal corruption charges against Richardson was made by…top officials in crime-coddling Attorney General Eric Holder’s Department of Injustice.

Birds of a feather skate together:

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former high-ranking members of his administration won’t be criminally charged in a yearlong federal investigation into pay-to-play allegations involving one of the Democratic governor’s large political donors, someone familiar with the case said.

The decision not to pursue indictments was made by top Justice Department officials, according to a person familiar with the investigation, who asked not to be identified because federal officials had not disclosed results of the probe.

“It’s over. There’s nothing. It was killed in Washington,” the person told The Associated Press.

A federal grand jury began an investigation in 2008 into a possible pay-to-play scheme in which lucrative work on state bond deals went to a Richardson donor. The federal probe derailed Richardson’s appointment as commerce secretary in President Barack Obama’s administration.

Richardson withdrew his nomination in January, saying the investigation would have delayed his confirmation although he said expected to be cleared.

Of course he did.

Chapter One of Culture of Corruption fills you in on all of Richardson’s shady pay-for-play schemes. A relevant excerpt for you from my section on Richardson:

The White House transition team knew about the pay-to-play scandal involving a California company, CDR Financial Products, well before Obama unwisely fêted Richardson’s ability to show “how government can act as a partner to support our businesses.” FBI and federal prosecutors launched their probe of CDR’s activities in New Mexico in the summer of 2008.

The feds had been digging into a nationwide web of favor-trading between financial firms and politicians overseeing local government bond markets. CDR was tied to a doomed bond deal in Alabama which, according to Bloomberg News, threatened to cause the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. CDR raked in nearly $1.5 million in fees from a New Mexico state financial agency after donating more than $100,000 to Richardson’s efforts to register Hispanic and American Indian voters and to pay for expenses at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, the news service reported. The state agency that awarded the money consisted of five Richardson appointees and five members of his gubernatorial cabinet. CDR made contributions both shortly before and after securing consultant work with the state of New Mexico. CDR’s president also contributed $29,000 to Obama’s presidential campaign.

It took 33 days before Team Obama threw Richardson and his ethical baggage off the bus. On January 4, 2009, Richardson announced his withdrawal. “Let me say unequivocally that I and my Administration (sic) have acted properly in all matters and that this investigation will bear out that fact,” he told NBC News. “But I have concluded that the ongoing investigation also would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process.” Obama gave the obligatory send-off: “”It is a measure of his willingness to put the nation first that he has removed himself as a candidate for the Cabinet to avoid any delay in filling this important economic post at this critical time.”

But it is a measure of Obama’s obliviousness that he nominated the ethically-challenged Richardson in the first place. Mother Jones writer James Ridgeway’s comment on the day of Richardson’s withdrawal proved quite prescient: “It may be premature to say that Obama and his team have too high a tolerance for corruption. But this first self-destruct among his cabinet picks could well prove all the more damaging because it’s something they should have seen coming from miles away.”

***

More: Babalu Blog notes that Richardson was in Cuba when the decision came down.

On Nov. 18, I noted that Hispanic lawyers were pressuring Obama to make ethnic-based appointments to reward them for their support.

On Dec. 4, I noted that Hispanic groups were whining that the Richardson nomination and the elevation of La Raza official Cecilia Munoz to a White House position were not enough to satisfy their sense of entitlement.

Yesterday, I noted that those groups were grumbling again in the wake of the Richardson withdrawal.

Today, the San Antonio News-Express reports further on the Latino lamentations against Obama:

After the withdrawal of Bill Richardson’s name as an Obama administration Cabinet nominee, Hispanic leaders say they expect the president-elect to name another Latino to head the Commerce Department.

An Obama transition team source said a veteran California congressman, Xavier Becerra, has emerged as the leading congressional candidate to replace Richardson, the Hispanic governor of New Mexico, as President-elect Barack Obama’s choice for a job that will include overseeing the 2010 U.S. Census…

…San Antonio Congressman Charlie Gonzalez said the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which is meeting in Washington this week, “will be coalescing with other groups on a specific person to recommend” as Richardson’s replacement. He declined to name any candidate.

He said Hispanic groups would strongly push to have a qualified Hispanic named as Richardson’s replacement because of the need to have minorities, especially Hispanics, properly accounted for in the Census.

…“We are going from three Latinos to two on the Obama Cabinet,” said Juan Sepulveda, a San Antonioan who served as the Obama campaign’s Texas coordinator. “While we still have Sen. (Ken) Salazar and Rep. (Hilda) Solis at Interior and Labor, respectively, Richardson would have been the highest-ranking Hispanic in the cabinet.”

It would have been the first time that three Hispanics would serve as Cabinet secretaries at the same time, he said.

Three Latinos — current Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and former Housing and Urban Development head Mel Martinez — served in the Cabinet of President George W. Bush, though not at the same time.

While the Grover Norquist/RNC debate kicks off, Bill Richardson is expected to talk about his sudden withdrawal from the Commerce Secretary post any minute.

All of a sudden, the Hispanic activists who jeered that Richardson’s nomination was an unacceptable consolation prize are demanding that another Hispanic be appointed to the post.

Here we go:

Bill Richardson is “disappointed” in the turn of the events. Has “faith” in the process. Excited about returning to work on the state budget. Refuses to talk about the probe or his conversations with Obama.

Richardson says he “underestimated how long the criminal investigation would take.”

Question: Did the transition team pressure you to withdraw or did you?

Richardson unconvincingly says that he made the decision.

“Yesterday, I was hurting. I lost a Cabinet appointment. But I think people have to focus on what people are losing in this country. They’re losing their savings and their homes.”

DLTDHYOTWO, Bill.

***

Yesterday: Adios.

Looks like the chickens of Bill Richardson’s pay-to-play scandal have come home to roost. Let it be the first of many ethics-tainted Obama nominations to go down in flames. Adios, Bill.

NBC reporting:

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, tapped in December by President-elect Barack Obama to serve as secretary of Commerce, has withdrawn his name for the position, citing a pending investigation into a company that has done business with his state.

“Let me say unequivocally that I and my Administration have acted properly in all matters and that this investigation will bear out that fact,” he said Sunday in a report by NBC News. “But I have concluded that the ongoing investigation also would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process.”

So much for all that “best person for the job” blather. Looks like Barack Obama’s vetters haven’t gotten any better since the campaign.

Flashback: Bill Richardson’s own pay-to-play scandal?

Refresher via WaPo:

A federal grand jury is investigating whether a financial firm improperly won more than $1.4 million in work for the state of New Mexico shortly after making contributions to political action committees of Gov. Bill Richardson (D).

The probe focuses on whether the governor’s office urged a state agency to hire CDR Financial Products. The probe is in a highly active stage at a time when President-elect Barack Obama has chosen Richardson as his nominee for secretary of commerce, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.

The grand jury in Albuquerque is expected to hear testimony today from several key witnesses, including officials at Richard’s political action committees and bankers at J.P. Morgan who worked with CDR on the state’s investments.

The inquiry is part of a long-running nationwide investigation into “pay-to-play” practices in local government bond markets. In other cities, federal investigators are questioning whether financial firms have lavished politicians with money and gifts in exchange for fee-paying work advising municipal and local governments on investments. Authorities indicted the mayor of Birmingham, Ala., this month on charges of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts and loans from a firm that led the city into toxic investments and massive bankruptcy.

In the New Mexico case, the FBI and federal prosecutors are investigating how CDR, based in Beverly Hills, Calif., won lucrative fees from the New Mexico Finance Authority in 2004 soon after donating $100,000 to two Richardson organizations.

From 2003 to 2004, CDR Financial gave $75,000 to Sí Se Puede, which paid for expenses at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. CDR’s president and founder, David Rubin, also gave $25,000 to Moving America Forward, which funded Richardson’s efforts to register Hispanic and American Indian voters.

Rubin was generous to Obama’s campaign as well, giving $29,000 to help elect the senator to the White House. Yesterday, the Obama transition office declined to comment on the development.

***

Who’s next? Perhaps the Richardson bungle will embolden Republicans for a fight over Eric Holder.

Also on the withdrawal wish list: Crooked Carol Browner.

Hello, Pay To Play.

Wonder if Bill Richardson will translate this mess into Spanish for us, too:

A federal grand jury is investigating whether a financial firm improperly won more than $1.4 million in work for the state of New Mexico shortly after making contributions to political action committees of Gov. Bill Richardson (D).

The probe focuses on whether the governor’s office urged a state agency to hire CDR Financial Products. The probe is in a highly active stage at a time when President-elect Barack Obama has chosen Richardson as his nominee for secretary of commerce, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.

The grand jury in Albuquerque is expected to hear testimony today from several key witnesses, including officials at Richard’s political action committees and bankers at J.P. Morgan who worked with CDR on the state’s investments.

The inquiry is part of a long-running nationwide investigation into “pay-to-play” practices in local government bond markets. In other cities, federal investigators are questioning whether financial firms have lavished politicians with money and gifts in exchange for fee-paying work advising municipal and local governments on investments. Authorities indicted the mayor of Birmingham, Ala., this month on charges of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts and loans from a firm that led the city into toxic investments and massive bankruptcy.

Ed’s got more background.

1) Obama finally called on Fox News for a question. (FNC had been shut out for five press conferences.) Wendell Goler asked about TARP and joked about Bill Richardson’s now-shaved beard. Obama basically said he would trust Hank Paulson not to draw down the second tranche of the bailout billions until he made some official announcement. Ha. Obama also lamented Richardson’s decision to get rid of the beard.

It was “Western” and “rugged,” Obama oozed. As opposed to bitter and clingy?

2) A Hispanic journalist asked Obama for his reaction to criticism from Latino groups that Richardson’s Commerce nomination was a token “consolation prize.” Obama unconvincingly argued that Richardson was the best person for the job, citing his, um, “diplomatic experience” (?) and executive experience as governor. As for Richardson’s knowledge of business and the markets, well, he served on a lot of corporate boards after leaving Washington. Oh, and he was the son of a Citibank exec.

Experience!

A criminal complaint was filed against a Brazilian man and a Kazakhstan woman after federal agents arrested 10 illegal immigrants in an investigation into an alleged smuggling operation involving fake documents to obtain New Mexico driver’s licenses.

…

FBI spokesman Darrin Jones said investigators learned several illegal immigrants living in New Mexico were charging thousands of dollars to help other illegal immigrants travel to the state to get licenses.

Hmmm…why would illegal aliens from all over the country travel out to New Mexico for this particular service?

New Mexico, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Oregon, Utah and Washington do not require drivers to prove legal status to obtain a license.

In 2003, Gov. Bill Richardson signed a measure into law that allowed foreign nationals , including those living illegally in the country , to obtain a driver’s license. His office has said one of the deciding factors in signing the bill was public safety.

Applicants for a New Mexico driver’s license who don’t have a Social Security number can present identification such as a tax identification number, a foreign passport or a Matricula Consular issued by the Mexican government.

It’s possible that these illegal applicants were just overstaying their tourist visas. There’s a quote from the director of New Mexico’s Motor Vehicle Department pointing out that “These are foreigners who got into the country using some sort of identification, and clearly were not on some kind of a watch list unless they used fake documents to get into the country.” He’s also spinning this as a case of sharp-eyed clerks catching the fraudulent documents before it happened. That’s not going to fly, because of the inconvenient fact that it’s worked before:

ICE agents believe Kulekhov and Galiullina transported at least 30 other immigrants, mostly from Brazil, from New Jersey to New Mexico to obtain New Mexico driver’s licenses, and allegedly charged each person $3,000.

But the FBI says that at least some of them were from unspecified countries “associated with special national security concerns”. Whatever that means. Probably not Brazil, right?

Meanwhile, bear in mind that both Democrats have burned their bottoms by publicly vacillating on this licenses-for-illegals scam.

McCain, too. And if you look at item number ten on this list, you’ll see McCain’s still flirting with disaster in this department today.

As a reminder, here’s why these illegal-ID rings matter.

_______________________

{Post by See-Dubya}

***
Bill Richardson is withdrawing from the Dem presidential race. So much for his rallying cry, “On to the West!” See ya:

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson ended his campaign for the presidency Wednesday after twin fourth-place finishes that showed his impressive credentials could not compete with his rivals’ star power.

Richardson planned to announce the decision Thursday, according to two people close to the governor with knowledge of the decision. They spoke on a condition of anonymity in advance of the governor’s announcement.

But, but, but, didn’t you know that he was Energy Secretary and Governor of New Mexico!?!?

Guess it didn’t matter.

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Welcome to Memorial Day 2007. Here’s a lesson in How Not To Honor a Fallen Soldier 101. Don’t do what Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson did to fallen Marine Lance Corporal Aaron Austin:

Get his name wrong.

Exploit his death on the campaign trail.

Insult his mother by claiming she talked about money with you at his memorial service, which she vehemently refutes–and then refuse to apologize.

Here’s the transcript from Meet The Press yesterday. Geez:

MR. RUSSERT: Let me ask you about a controversy that has arisen from some speech you’ve been giving on the stump, particularly in New Hampshire, regarding a mother from New Mexico. Here’s the headline from the Associated Press: “Mother of fallen Marine says Richardson misrepresented conversation with her.”

“On the campaign trail, presidential hopeful Bill Richardson tells a moving story about a New Mexico Marine killed in Iraq and his mom. But is it true?

“Three years ago, Richardson attended a memorial service for Lance Corporal Aaron Austin, 21, who died in April” of “2004. As he campaigns for the Democratic nomination, the New Mexico governor often recounts an emotional conversation with Austin’s mother, saying she thanked him for the federal death benefits she had received and even showed him the government check.

“In speeches in New Hampshire, Richardson has gotten Austin’s name wrong at least once,” “age wrong at least twice. He also has called Austin the first New Mexico soldier killed in Iraq–instead of the third.

“But that’s not what bothers the Marine’s mother, De’on Miller, of Lovington, New Mexico, who says the conversation about money never took place. ‘I don’t know a person rich or poor that would be told that” her “only living child has been killed, and you’re going to strike up a money conversation? Bill Richardson needs to stop pushing this lie. Aaron’s name had better not be used again in any way. Not mine either. A full written apology is due me for this.’” Will you apologize to her?

GOV. RICHARDSON: Tim, she–we have different recollections. That family is heroic, that young man is heroic. But let me tell you what that–my attending that ceremony caused. It inspired me to go to the New Mexico legislature and propose a $250,000 death benefit–life insurance–for every National Guardsman in New Mexico. It’s now $400,000. It passed. I made it happen. And then 30 other states–I went to the National Governors Association, and we pushed this–30 other states have made this happen. And the federal death benefit has gone up.

Now, I, I fully respect that family. We have different recollections. But that’s where I learned, at that ceremony, that the death benefit for our soldiers was $11,000. And look, Tim, I am not going to–there is nobody that has done more for veterans, any governor, I believe, than I have. No state income tax for enlisted people. I was just in North Korea two months ago, and I brought back–I’ve been working on this for years–the remains of six Americans from the Korean War. All kinds of initiatives, such as this life insurance policy that has been…

MR. RUSSERT: But if it troubles her, out of respect for Mrs. Miller and her son Aaron Austin, will you stop using his name and her name?

GOV. RICHARDSON: Yes, I will. I will do that. But we just have different recollections, Tim, and–but, but that family is honorable. I attended that service. I was really moved. You know, I call as many of the mothers of New Mexico soldiers that’ve been killed. But no one will ever question my commitment to help our veterans. I was in North Korea. I rescued–I helped rescue, helped push forward the release of–many years ago–of, of an American helicopter pilot. So I believe very strongly that we have to stand up for our veterans when they come back, coming back PTSD, they’re not getting the help that they deserve.

MR. RUSSERT: But if Mrs. Miller feels used, you would apologize for it.

GOV. RICHARDSON: Well, Tim, I–that’s where I learned about this death benefit. There was an individual there that saw a piece of paper being given to me. I, I don’t want to get into this. I want this to–I respect that woman. I will not mention it again.

MR. RUSSERT: And you’re sorry?

GOV. RICHARDSON: Well, I’m sorry for the way she feels, but I believe I acted honorably. Look at the result. The result was $400,000 life insurance for New Mexico National Guardsmen that served and then 30 states that covered all their veterans. They followed New Mexico’s lead. They followed my lead. The federal death benefit, which was shameful, $11,000, $12,000 is now significantly higher.

Talk about shameful. Couldn’t he just apologize and shut up already? Why is Cindy Sheehan the only mother who gets “absolute moral authority?”

***

Here’s a tribute page for Lance Corporal Aaron Austin.

Not “Sean Austin,” as the boneheaded Gov. Richardson called him.

Lance Cpl. Aaron Austin.

And he was 21, not 17.

Here’s a summary of his heroism:

Lance Cpl. Aaron Austin died in Fallujah repelling an attack. For his actions, he was awarded the Silver Star posthumously, the award will go to his parents.

On the last night of his life, Lance Cpl. Aaron Austin joined a prayer session with other Marines hunkered down in a bullet-riddled neighborhood in Fallouja, Iraq. Austin, a 21-year-old machine-gunner, asked God for protection not for himself but for his fellow Marines of Echo Company of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Regiment, 1st Marine Division, based at Camp Pendleton.

The next morning, insurgents attacked from three directions, firing thousands of rounds from AK-47s and other firearms and hurling dozens of grenades. With the Marines in danger of being overrun, Austin exposed himself to enemy fire in order to throw a grenade at their position 20 meters away. The grenade helped repel the attack, but Austin was mortally wounded.

The Marines were searching buildings in the war-torn Jolan neighborhood when they came under attack in one of the bloodiest clashes between the U.S. military and insurgents that spring.

Austin helped evacuate the wounded and led other Marines onto a roof to operate a machine gun. When the insurgents kept advancing, he took a grenade from his vest and moved into the open for a better throwing position.

“Several enemy bullets struck Lance Cpl. Austin in the chest,” said the official Marine Corps account. “Undaunted by his injury and with heroic effort, he threw his hand grenade at the enemy on the adjacent rooftop.”

The grenade hit the bull’s-eye and forced the insurgents to halt their attack.

When the battle was over, Marines erected a makeshift memorial to Austin in one of the buildings they had fought to defend.

And another:

Sunray, Texas native Lance Corporal Aaron Austin served with Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division. On April 26, 2004 terrorists firing AK–47s, other small arms and hurling grenades, attacked his company’s position in Fallujah from three sides. The situation was grim. The Marines were in danger of being overrun. L/Cpl Austin reacted by first helping evacuate wounded then leading fellow Marines onto a rooftop to set up a machine gun position. The terrorists continued to advance. With no regard for his safety L/Cpl Austin moved to an exposed position to throw a grenade and, as the official Marine account states, ‘several enemy bullets struck him in the chest. Undaunted by his injuries and with heroic effort, he threw his hand grenade at the enemy on the adjacent rooftop.’ It hit its target and the terrorist attack was halted. Lance Corporal Aaron Austin was later awarded a posthumous Silver Star for gallantry in action on that heroic day in April.

L/Cpl Austin’s mom blogs here “in Loving Memory to LCpl. Aaron C. Austin, USMC KIA Fallujah, Iraq on April 26, 2004. Rock on.”

From an April 2004 article reacting to his death:

“Aaron died doing something he believed in. He just wanted to go out and kick butt. I love what he was doing out there,” she said. “I appreciate what those soldiers stand for,” she added.

Someone left this famous verse by Wallace Stevens at a tribute site for Lance Corporal Austin:

The shadows of his fellows ring him round,
In the high night, the summer breathes for them
Its fragrance, a heavy somnolence, and for him,
For the soldier of time, it breathes a summer sleep,
In which his wound is good because life was.
No part of him was ever part of death.

R.I.P., Lance Corporal Austin, and God bless all our fallen heroes today and every day.

***
Related: Must-read from Blackfive…The Fallen Lion of Fallujah, Maj. Doug Zembiec. He was killed in action leading a raid on insurgents in Baghdad last week.

Maj. Zembiec was the unit commander in Fallujah when Lance Corporal Austin was killed. Here’s what he wrote to Lance Corporal Austin’s mother:

“Your son was killed in action today. Despite intense enemy machine gun and rocket propelled grenade fire, your son fought like a lion. He remained in his fighting position until all his wounded comrades could be evacuated from the rooftop they were defending. It was during his courageous defense of his comrades that Aaron was hit by enemy fire…. With the exception of the Marines on Security, every man in the company attended the service. Aaron was respected and admired by every Marine in his company. His death brought tears to my eyes, tears that fell in front of my Marines. I am unashamed of that fact.”

- Douglas Zembiec, [then] Captain, U.S. Marine Corps, writing to the mother of Aaron C. Austin, included in Operation Homecoming by Andrew Carroll

From the LA Times coverage of Maj. Zembiec’s funeral at Arlington National Cemetery on May 17:

“We can dispute the politics of any war — Iraq, Afghanistan or any others,” said Bing West, author of two books about combat Marines in Iraq, “but we cannot dispute our need for warriors. Doug was our guardian.”

Sgt. Maj. William Skiles, who fought beside Zembiec at Fallouja, said he inspired great loyalty among his troops. “An entire company of Marines would trade places with him right now,” Skiles said from Camp Pendleton. “They would put down their lives for him.”

Zembiec was a star wrestler at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he graduated in 1995. While attending the academy, he decided the Marine Corps offered more challenge than the Navy. “I wanted to be a defender, defending my country,” he said.

After Fallouja, Zembiec was promoted to major and given a desk job at the Pentagon. Restive, he volunteered to fight in Afghanistan. More recently, he returned to Iraq.

During the eulogy, his best friend Eric Kapitulik read from notebooks that Zembiec had kept:

“Be a man of principle. Fight for what you believe in. Keep your word. Live with integrity. Be brave. Believe in something bigger than yourself. Serve your country. Teach. Mentor. Give something back to society. Lead from the front. Conquer your fears,” Kapitulik read.

“Be a good friend. Be humble but be self-confident. Appreciate your friends and family. Be a leader and not a follower. Be valorous on the field of battle and take responsibility for your actions,” Kapitulik continued.

Maj. Zembiec is survived by his wife and 1-year-old daughter. The family has asked that memorial contributions be sent to the Maj. Douglas A. Zembiec Scholarship, MC-LEF c/o William Venezia, MC-LEF Office, 10 Rockefeller Plaza, Suite 1007, New York, NY 10020.

More: An account of Maj. Zembiec’s funeral over at Op-For.

***
Update: Don’t forget to pause today at 3pm for the national moment of remembrance. Click to play:

An excerpt from Dispatch 1:

People here are largely, disappointingly, golf-shirted, short-haired, and white bread. Grooming and hygiene are up to western business standards. There is one dude wearing a pith helmet and another guy in a kilt, but the freakish T-shirts I brought along a camera for are not popping up. Oh, I spoke too soon, there’s a girl in an I HAD AN ABORTION t-shirt. For such a routine, ordinary, medical procedure she seems awfully proud of it. Can I get an “I HAD A TONSILLECTOMY” shirt?

On the other hand there’s a buzz-cut grey-templed fellow in a pinstripe suit and an American flag tie. Hmm…maybe they’re catching on. The media is here pretty strong, so maybe they cleaned up and want to look respectable…

That descriptive paragraph provoked an excitable response from Andrew Sullivan–you know, the guy who called America a “rogue nation.”

Our correspondent adds some anthropological commentary:

Oh-one always wants to know whether the other side’s women are more attractive. So rest assured, my gentlemen readers at Hotair, you are on the right side of history. Again, not an extreme case: If you had pictured nothing but young, budding, be-Birkenstocked Helen Thomases traipsing through the Riviera’s halls, seeking whom they may devour, it’s nowhere near that bad; it’s just that I’ve been to CPAC; and this, sir, is no CPAC.

In Dispatch 2, our correspondent’s reports from a training panel for future left-wing TV pundits–and catches some global-warming Zarqawi mania:

I’m at the second training session, and I clarified the rules with Jennifer Palmieri of CAP, told her I was writing for a blog called Hotair, and she said that while the discussion was on background, I could quote her.

I don’t want to bother the people who are now doing the practice interviews–in fact I felt sufficiently voyeuristic that I went and got a “press” badge–but one bit of discussion illustrated a lot of what I’ve seen today–the impact of the wild, untamed nutroots with the center-left political establishment.

We were discussing the general pitfalls of shows like Hannity and Colmes, and one trainee pundit spoke up to volunteer that leftist guests “need to have more humor on these shows.” Hmm, I thought. They are learning. There were some murmurs of assent. And then she added, “We need to look at these people who are asking these questions and just ask them, ‘ARE YOU A NAZI?’”

Jennifer Palmieri jumped in quickly, gently, and cautioned, “No, no, no, don’t call them a Nazi.”

Oh, and here’s a gutsy response from a video’s pundit-in-training to a curveball question. During her practice interview, the other CAP presenter switched from asking her about global warming and then asked her if Zarqawi’s death proved Bush’s strategy was going better than expected: “Haven’t we heard several times before that Zarqawi was dead? It seems like there’s less certainty whether Zarqawi’s dead than whether the earth is warming.”

We just finished reviewing her performance on tape and there was a wonderful exchange where Palmieri said, now, when you tell a joke like that, you should sort of smile at your own joke. Otherwise people will think you’re … like those people who don’t believe in global warming.” (In other words, in Kosland, a nut).

No, [the trainee pundit] clarified, she wasn’t joking…

Crikey.

Stay tuned for more. Today they scheduled an all-star day of moonbattery.

This morning, Gen. Wesley Clark is speaking about…science. (BTW, I met him in the green room at Fox last week and asked him about his decision to attend the fringe confab. He babbled about the moonbats’ right to participate in democracy or something like that. Didn’t listen to much more because he is a, uh, close talker.)

More:

9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

* CIA Leak Investigation – Ambassador Joseph Wilson, Dan Froomkin, Jane Hamsher, Larry C. Johnson, Christy Hardin Smith, Marcy Wheeler, Murray Waas

* A Sustainable Energy-Energize America – Jérôme Guillet, Mark Sumner, Adam Siegel, George Karayannis, Governor Bill Richardson

11:15 PM – 1:15 PM
Lunch Keynote – Senator Barbara Boxer

More Kos infiltrators:

Ryan Sager for the NY Sun.
Byron York for NRO.

They went missing in New Mexico sometime between Dec. 13 and Sunday.

More info:

In a written statement, Gov. Bill Richardson said state agencies have been urged to report any suspicious activity.

“There is no specific threat,” Richardson said, adding that “it is my understanding that the explosives were stolen from a private magazine.”

Rand Corp. terrorism expert Brian Jenkins said such thefts are common, with 1990s figures showing more than 100 such incidents each year.

Several hundred bombings occur each year, most of which have nothing to do with terrorism, Jenkins said. “Most have to do with insurance fraud, organized crime, personal vendettas, extortion, revenge, vandalism and protest.”

Ho-hum.

FOUND: Via AP…

U.S. soldiers in the northern Iraqi desert dug up more than 1,000 aging rockets and missiles wrapped in plastic, some of which were buried as recently as two weeks ago, Army officials said Tuesday.

Commanders in the 101st Airborne Division said an Iraqi tipped them off to the buried weapons, perhaps an indication that residents in this largely Sunni Arab region about 150 miles north of Baghdad are beginning to warm up to coalition forces.

“The tide is turning,” said 2nd Lt. Patrick Vardaro, 23, of Norwood, Mass., a platoon leader in the division’s 187th Infantry Regiment. “It’s better to work with Americans than against us.”

As the sun set, soldiers from the 101st continued to uncover more, following zigzagging tire tracks across the desert floor and using metal detectors to locate weapons including mines, mortars and machine gun rounds.

“This is the mother load, right here,” Sgt. Jeremy Galusha, 25, of Dallas, Ore., said, leaning on a shovel after finding more than 20 Soviet missiles.

The weapons are of primary concern for soldiers in Iraq, where bombs made with loose ordinance by insurgents are the preferred method to target coalition forces.

“In our eyes, every one of these rockets represents one less” bomb, Vardaro said.

Good news.

The Dems have gotten a bit smarter while the Nero-like GOP fiddles.

Now, two Democratic governors have pulled off bold political moves that go beyond lip service: declaring border emergencies. First, Bill Richardson in New Mexico. Followed by Janet Napolitano in Arizona. The gestures boost government funding for–and, yes, political credibility on–an issue long festering in the Southwest and spreading to the interior.

Granted, the two Dem governors are no Tom Tancredos and the announcements are largely symbolic. Napolitano supports sanctuary and opposed the successful citizens’ referendum blocking government benefits to illegal aliens and requiring voters to show proof of citizenship. Chris Kelly notes pro-amnesty Richardson’s illegal immigration-enabling positions in the past. Neither has had a strong record on immigration enforcement.

But, hey, who has?

So, what’s the open-borders Bush administration’s response? Nada. They’ve been too busy pandering to the open borders lobby and installing political cronies in the failed immigration court bureaucracy.

***

Check out The Immigration Blog for the latest news and views on our continuing border chaos.

More of my thoughts over at The American Enterprise magazine, in case you missed it.

Thomas Sowell ponders immigration taboos.

***

More perspectives on the Dems’ outflanking manuevers:

- Lawrence Auster responds to John Fund.

- The Washington Times: “Look for more Democrats to outflank President Bush on illegals and border control. If Bill Richardson can do it, so can the rest of the pack. Wouldn’t it be nice if a few Republican presidential hopefuls would saddle up and join the posse down Mexico way?”

- Matt at Overtaken notes that Arkansas Republican Mike Huckabee won’t be among them.

***
The Beyond Borders Blog has an immigration news round-up.

Update: John Hinderaker at Power Line takes a closer look at the Pew Hispanic Center’s most recent survey.