Check out this gold-plated resume: Seven-term member of Congress; special envoy to North Korea, Iraq, Cuba and Sudan; U.N. ambassador; energy secretary; governor; and five-time nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize.
You would think such an overachiever would be a shoe-in for secretary of state in the Barack Obama administration, especially if that person was also a member of a highly sought-after ethnic group that gave two-thirds of its votes to Obama and helped him win four battleground states. And what if that person also happened to be a former presidential candidate who had stuck his neck out to endorse Obama over Hillary Clinton and wound up persona non grata among Team Clinton and even likened to “Judas” by ever-loyal Clintonista James Carville?
Finally, what if that person had the backing of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, an association of 26 national and regional Hispanic civil rights and public policy organizations. The NHLA recently sent a letter to President-elect Obama recommending New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as secretary of state. John Trasvina, the group’s chairman who also serves as president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, wrote: “No one is more qualified to serve as our country’s chief diplomat than Gov. Bill Richardson.” Board member Janet Murguia, president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza, added this about Richardson: “His appointment would send a powerful message to Latinos throughout our country as well as to our neighbors in this hemisphere.”
Now I wonder what message it sends that President-elect Obama has apparently passed over Richardson and seems ready to offer the post at State to their former rival, Hillary Clinton. While known the world over from her days as first lady, Clinton doesn’t have anywhere near Richardson’s level of experience in foreign affairs. Besides, she treated Obama reprehensibly during the primary. Does anyone really think that if she had been elected president that she would be vetting Barack Obama for secretary of state?
After the snub, Richardson turned the other cheek and got slapped again. He is reportedly about to be offered, as a parting gift, a job – secretary of commerce – that someone else turned down. That someone else was Penny Pritzker, the president-elect’s chief fundraiser who reportedly was Obama’s choice for the post. A billionaire heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune, Pritzker withdrew her name from consideration.
What a mess. Supporters of both Obama and Richardson, along with a willing media, are spinning like mad and trying to clean it up. They’re desperate to convince anyone who will listen that no one was slighted and that everything worked out as planned. It’s all rainbows and puppy dogs.
Sadly, that includes those Latinos “leaders” – using the term tentatively – who, just weeks ago, were pressuring Obama to give Richardson an entirely different job.
When I called Trasvina to ask what he thought of recent events, the former Clinton Justice Department official served his disappointment sunny side up.
“Sure, I’m disappointed,” Trasvina said. “A lot of people are disappointed. But is Richardson a good fit for the Commerce Department? The answer is yes. And is this a good fit for the community? The answer is yes.”
And do you suppose Latino leaders are going easier on a Democrat who ignored them than they would a Republican who did the same. The answer is yes.
Don’t fall for the spin. It’s humiliating to be second choice for secretary of state. But it is even more humiliating to be second choice for secretary of commerce.
This isn’t about Richardson, who might be very happy heading for ribbon cuttings in Toledo while Clinton heads for blue-ribbon summits in Tel Aviv. This is about something larger. Richardson is the nation’s only Hispanic governor and the most prominent Hispanic elected official in the country. And the way he was treated doesn’t say much about Obama’s respect for the Hispanic community. Nor does the fact that Obama seems to have filled his top four Cabinet posts – Justice, Treasury, Defense and State – and couldn’t find a single Hispanic to put in any of them.
America’s largest minority took a chance on Obama despite the fact that the president-elect had no track record in reaching out to them and didn’t break a sweat trying to win their votes. They deserve better.
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