Richardson and Bush ask for our trust, but they’re not earning it

Today there are reasons to criticize the actions of the governor and president.

First on Gov. Bill Richardson: The Albuquerque Journal revealed today that Richardson took a day trip earlier this month to Chicago to sit on an immigration panel.

It appears likely that a U.S. Smokeless Tobacco jet flew Richardson there and back, according to flight-tracking records obtained by the Journal.

I and others have already criticized Richardson for accepting flights from corporations and lobbyists as gifts. Today’s news indicates that he hasn’t stopped.

More important are the answers given by officials when asked about the travel. Richardson’s people almost always say the trip expenses were covered by the Democratic Governor’s Association, which Richardson chairs, and the association refuses to disclose who paid for the travel.

The association files reports that list travel donations, and has to file its next report at the end of June, but, in the past, it has refused to link the donations to specific trips.

The association refused to tell the Journal who flew Richardson to Chicago.

Leaving us to wonder:

Did Richardson really travel with the tobacco group? Most likely.

Why doesn’t he come clean about it? It sure makes me wonder.

Richardson repeatedly won’t disclose things like this, even though he says he is concerned about state government ethics and wants reform.

Openness is the first step. I realize that most of the time there isn’t actual impropriety. By not being open, Richardson is creating an appearance of impropriety and leaving us to wonder whether there’s actually anything improper happening.

On to President Bush: The New York Times reported today about a secret Bush Administration program, initiated weeks after Sept. 11, allowing counterterrorism officials to access financial records of thousands of Americans.

Of course, government officials said they’re only tracking transactions of people suspected of being tied to Al Qaeda.

That’s what they always say.

What’s highly unusual is that, like with other secret programs, they’re doing all this without first obtaining warrants. The last time I checked, you still needed search warrants to invade the private lives of suspects.

That darned Constitution. It must be so bothersome for counterterrorism officials.

Here’s how you get around it: The program “is grounded in part on the president’s emergency economic powers,” the Times quoted an undersecretary at the Treasury Department as saying.

How long can we keep living in an emergency state? The so-called “war on terrorism” will never end. As long as Americans allow this, there is potential for abuse.

Which ties the Richardson and Bush incidents together. The underlying message is, “Trust us. We’re you’re leaders.”

That goes against the very fabric that holds together our nation’s government. Checks and balances, freedom of speech and of the press, privacy rights, rights of the accused and other safeguards encourage us to question and our leaders to be open.

Questioning and open responses, not blind trust, is how we are supposed to judge our leaders.

Right now, they’re not earning my trust. For all I know, the feds are watching my bank accounts and listening to my phone calls. And Richardson is making deals with Big Tobacco.