Richardson Withdraws as Commerce Nom

clipped from online.wsj.com New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson withdrew his nomination as President-elect Barack Obama's commerce secretary Sunday, citing a federal grand-jury investigation into a "pay to play" scheme in his home state, Obama transition officials said. The grand jury is investigating how the company won more than $1.5 million in work advising the state of New Mexico after making contributions to Mr. Richardson's political action committees. The "pay-to-play" investigation is trying to determine whether the governor's office had any role in the contracting decisions. Latino and business groups had praised the selection of Mr. Richardson. Bruce Josten, chief lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said at the time of his nomination that as head of U.S. trade missions globally, Mr. Richardson would be able to tap his extensive foreign-policy experience and his acquaintance with foreign leaders to help pry open new markets for struggling U.S. exporters.

This is pretty disappointing news. I thought Richardson was great and I would actually have liked to see him take State, instead of Hillary Clinton. Here's hoping this doesn't pan out as a fullblown scandal or crime.

That would be a big surprise -- at least, to me.