Richardson’s pick for favorite justice might hurt him

Another of Gov. Bill Richardson’s statements from last week’s Democratic presidential candidate debate might come back to bite him.

When each candidate was asked to name, without elaborating, their favorite Supreme Court justice, Richardson picked former Justice Byron “Whizzer” White. When asked to name a living justice, he named Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The controversy comes from Richardson’s career of strong statements in support of abortion rights. White was among the minority of justices who dissented from the 1973 opinion in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion, and Richardson’s naming him has upset some Democrats.

Richardson was asked about the choice during a campaign stop Saturday in San Diego. When told by a reporter that White opposed the landmark 1973 decision, Richardson said he thought the reporter was wrong.

According to the Washington Times, Richardson then said he chose White not because of his decisions, but because he was an all-American football player and was nominated by Richardson’s hero, President Kennedy.

“I was thinking really fast,” the Times quoted Richardson as saying.

Richardson has been in Nevada ever since. He stopped in Carson City on Monday to talk about Western values. You can read about it from Nevada Appeal by clicking here.

He’s scheduled to be in Nevada today. He has no campaign events scheduled Wednesday and Friday, but plans to be the keynote speaker at the National Conference of Black Mayors in Baton Rouge, La., on Thursday. The three Democratic frontrunners are also scheduled to speak at the five-day event.

One more comment about the debate, and then I’ll let it die: Richardson refused to debate his gubernatorial opponent last year. He should have debated John Dendahl, on television, and he should have done it as often as Dendahl was willing, which probably would have been repeatedly. Richardson clearly needed the practice.

Getting stomped by Dendahl, which would have been the worst-case scenario, might have meant Richardson got 65 percent of the vote instead of 69, but he probably would have done a lot better at last week’s debate, having had recent, real-world practice against a skilled opponent.

Update, 4:50 p.m.

The Richardson campaign put out an amended schedule for the week announcing that the governor will be in New Hampshire on Saturday, Sunday and Monday to speak to a union convention and do a lot of meet-and-greets and grassroots campaigning.

At this rate, we should expect Richardson to be in New Mexico 2-3 days every two weeks.

Also, I know I said I was done with the debate, but I came across an article today that had quite a different perspective than mine. The article, published on the site Bloomberg.com, was written by Kevin Hassett. He said Richardson did better than anyone else and gave him a grade of “A+.” Hillary Clinton had an “A,” and Hassett gave the next closest candidate a “C.”

He wrote that Richardson was “genuine and tough, the kind of guy who could pull the troops out of Iraq without looking wimpy.”

“If the Democratic primaries continue along the path they began last week, then Richardson is the only thing between Clinton and coronation,” Hassett wrote.

Interesting.