Monday, January 5, 2009

Clinton, Richardson, and Obama

From my previous posts one can surmise that I am not a fan of Barack Obama. My reasons are many but mainly center on his lack of experience. I listened to the older George Bush in a recent interview talk kindly of PEBO. The comment that stuck with me was Bush's assessment that Barack is articulate. While that my be true it makes me personally feel the country will be "sold" on something, not united to solve our problems.

A crack in his cabinet appeared over the weekend. Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico withdrew his name for the post of Commerce Secretary due to the disclosure of an investigation over the award of a state contract to one of his donors. The Obama transition team claims that Richardson wasn't forthcoming with this information before the announcement of his appointment. Their claim falls flat on its face since the Albuquerque Journal has been reporting on this story since August, 2008. A simple Google search would glean light on the allegation.

This story follows a similar story recently where an upstate New York developer donated $100,000 to former President Clinton's foundation in November 2004, about the same time Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton helped secure millions of dollars in federal assistance for the businessman's mall project.

Sen. Clinton helped enact legislation allowing the developer, Robert Congel, to use tax-exempt bonds to help finance the construction of the Destiny USA entertainment and shopping complex, an expansion of the Carousel Center in Syracuse, N.Y.

She also helped secure an earmark in a highway bill that set aside $5 million for Destiny USA roadway construction.


In another saga Eric Holder, PEBO's nominee for Attorney General, failed to disclose that Governor BLagojevich picked him to settle an Illinois casino license mess.

Blagojevich and Holder appeared together at a March 24, 2004, news conference to announce Holder's role as "special investigator to the Illinois Gaming Board" -- a post that was to pay Holder and his Washington, D.C. law firm up to $300,000.

Holder, however, omitted that event from his 47-page response to a Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire made public this week -- an oversight he plans to correct after a Chicago Sun-Times inquiry, Obama's transition team indicated late Tuesday.


I guess these acts are the change PEBO convinced us he would bring to Washington.

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