The New York Times had an interesting article this weekend about the fact that Vice President Dick Cheney was spotted washing his hands after shaking a lot of hands.
The article pointed out that most politicians these days carry bottles of Purell – an alcohol-based hand sanitizer – to use after shaking a lot of hands.
Not Gov. Bill Richardson.
“It’s condescending to voters,” he told the Times. “… The great part about politics is that you’re touching humanity. You’re going to collect bacteria just by existing.”
Richardson holds the Guinness world record for shaking the most hands over an eight-hour period, according to the Times – 13,392 at the 2002 New Mexico State Fair.
Greg Pollowitz of the National Review had a funny take on this. He pointed to a 2004 letter Richardson sent to the Bush administration urging it to do more to stop the spread of the flu.
But, Pollowitz pointed out, the Centers for Disease Control says one of the most important factors in stopping the spread of the flu is – you guessed it – hand washing.
“I guess we can say that Bill Richardson was for stopping the spread of the flu right before he was against it,” Pollowitz wrote.