Richardson stays in NM

He's ba-a-a-a-ck.

Bill Richardson's habit of taking significant campaign contributions from state contractors seems to have caught up with him, and as a result his Commerce Sect'y post will have to wait until the dust settles and his fingers are determined to be cookie-free. Until then, he'll remain our Guv and we can likely kiss real health care reform in NM goodbye.

It's all about keeping the insurers happy, according to Big Bill and his health policy guru, Pam Hyde, Sect'y of NM's Human Services Division. Too bad insurance isn't the solution to the uninsured crisis. It's actually the problem, but never mind. Insurers make good cookies - and fundraising parties.

Greg Palast comes to mind today, since he has been investigating NM's special way of conducting the business of government via cookie-jar for over a decade and has been following Bill Richardson's nasty little pattern of siding with right-wingers from voting rights to immigrant rights to insurers rights.

Seems Newt Gingrich - astute health policy analyst that he is - saw nothing wrong with ValueOptions in 2006 despite the fact that they, too, seemed to be a cookie jar for a Richardson campaign. This from the man who brought us the K Street pig trough known as the "Contract with America".

We'll see what the new year - and a new state behavioral health contractor - brings us in NM. My guess: more of the same.

Terry