More wacky late-summer tales, just for you! This one involves New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, the one with the resume, and the corruption. His life has very little purpose right now. That’s a good thing! The man deserves a break from his prison of Ambition, a passion that has kept him busy in hundreds of semi-important government jobs over the years. Now he has time to dance! He also has time to flee boat crashes — you know, like when the boat he’s on demolishes another boat, and destroys a marina in general, and then he and his buddies just pop off and never tell anyone. This is something Bill Richardson has time to do now! MORE »

He was the Democratic presidential candidate with the funniest ads, and maybe the most experience. And then he was going to be, maybe, secretary of state. But Hillary got that prize. Then he was going to Commerce, but there was some investigation of his office in New Mexico. Now, Bill Richardson just dances and dances and dances to the Mexican turbo-polka, as this secret May 4 video makes so terrifyingly clear. [YouTube via Wonkette Operative "Ellen D."]

Yay a new era has dawned in Washington, bipartisanship forever, etc! After Barack Obama’s pudgy comic foil had to renounce the Latino Consolation Prize due to a corruption investigation, people wondered who could possibly replace Bill Richardson. And then the name “Judd Gregg” was floated, and people said, “well, he was pretty good in Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” plus he was a Republican, which meant that sneaky Barack Obama could get Gregg’s Democratic governor to appoint a Democrat to replace him in the Senate without a single Republican noticing! MORE »

Barack Obama has completely exhausted his list of passingly competent government nobodies to fill the remaining positions in his upper-level administration, so now he is reaching out to people he has heard about on the teevee. Today we hear that Richard Parsons is under consideration for Secretary of Commerce now that Bill Richardson has returned to beard-farming. You remember Dick Parsons, yes? Former chairman of Time Warner, one of a select handful of black people to run a Fortune 500 company, etc? He also apparently “ran a Social Security study group in [the] Bush era,” which should send a cold chill of fear down your spine. Dick Parsons is obviously Beelzebub. [The Page]

There’s some corruption in New Mexico! (Allegedly.) A California business got a contract maybe through some agency (?) in New Mexico, and this is tied to the Governor’s Department, and Bill Richardson is (still) the governor of N.M., so now he is bowing out of the Commerce Department cabinet post because of the Great Cloud of Scandal, which could get its Taint on Big Bill, and that’s it for Hispanics in Politics, the end. This is all Rod Blagojevich’s fault! [Washington Post/Top of the Ticket]

• Police are going to use truth serum (probably just pinot noir) on the only surviving Mumbai terrorist. [Daily Beast]
• Harvard is in a recession too! The elitist madrassa where Barry spent his formative years managed to lose 22% of it’s $36.9 billion endowment in four months. [HuffPost]
• According to Jonah Goldberg, the real victims of Proposition 8 are the Mormons, who were in no way affected by Proposition 8 or any of its outcomes. [Andrew Sullivan]
• Obama loved his new boyfriend Bill Richardson better when he did the whole bear thing. “We’re deeply disappointed with the loss of the beard,” Obama said at a press conference, which was probably held in some art gallery in Providence. [CNN Political Ticker]
• The forgotten territory of Oklahoma is celebrating the completely irrelevant fact that John McCain won the state with a dumb Christmas card. [Ben Smith]

CONSOLATION PRIZE: Of all the secretaries of commerce in American History, the only ones anybody has ever heard of are Herbert Hoover, Ron Brown and Norm Mineta. The first is known for making the Depression, the second for being killed in some random plane crash, the third for … doing 9/11? [U.S. Secretary of Commerce]

Now that he’s the President of Global Business, Bill Richardson is on the A List! People are interested, maybe, in what he has to say! So it’s a good thing Esquire just posted some random stuff from an interview with the de-bearded New Mexican. He named his horse after some country music jackass! Barack Obama helped him out at a debate! MORE »

Jeez, that media whore Barack Obama is on the teevee again! Let’s liveblog it. He is introducing the Commerce Secretary, who was announced what, two weeks ago? Slow news day, Barry, MMMHMMM? Every big supporter of Obama gets their own press conference which probably takes over The View or Ellen or something, which angers American women. Anyway, Mr. Talky is already talking so let’s do this thing. MORE »

• This global warming has gotten so bad that ships can now pass through the “Northwest Passage,” which didn’t even previously exist except on advanced levels of the Oregon Trail. [Matthew Yglesias]
• Stately, plump Bill Richardson will be Obama’s new Commerce Secretary! [Politico]
• Joe Biden complains to Sarah Palin that no one pays attention to him anymore. It is literally impossible to overstate how much she empathizes with him. [CNN Political Ticker]
• Nota Bene: Recovering British person Christopher Hitchens prefers the name “Bombay” to “Mumbai.” [The Corner]
• Al Franken has won his latest battle with Minnesota, as more absentee ballots are going to be counted and there’s nothing Norm Coleman can do about it. Except counter-sue. [HuffPost]
  

UGGGH JOHN KERRY. The sad horsey lost his 2004 run at the presidency by issuing a stream of terrible proclamations throughout the campaign, which George Bush’s oppo team immediately made into commercials: stuff like, “I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it.” He was also dull and utterly uncharismatic and bad at campaigning. After he lost the election, he insisted on spamming every single one of his supporters, constantly, with retarded emails that made them loathe him even more. MORE »