New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson achieved a 0.0 rating for style points this week. A large houseboat with him, some of his staff and security detail was docking at an Elephant Butte marina Sept. 5 when it ran expensively into some other boats and the dock — which certainly is not the textbook way of docking and sure to attract attention.
You might ask, “How did a simple incident get such media legs?”
Any story including the governor automatically has legs, and while the press knew something happened involving the governor, it was several days until the incident report was available. Several statements in the report raised media eyebrows.
Richardson’s chief of staff was deemed the co-driver of the boat when it hit the dock, along with the owner of the boat, who had just grabbed the controls to try to stop the boat from crashing. The chief of staff was cited in the accident.
What should the real driver have done after doing more than $12,000 of damage? You or me would have stood and taken the scolding.
The media erupted when they learned that, despite the crash, Governor Richardson, members of his staff including the chief of staff, and his security detail were gone in minutes. The unfortunate boat owner stayed for the unpleasant conversations to follow.
The authorities arrived in 20 minutes. It was noted that there were people unavailable at the time of the investigation. Two days later, after time to freshen up, the governor’s chief of staff contacted the authorities.
Shuckins, too late for a breathalyzer test. I’m not saying there was drinking happening on the boat — just noting a convenient fact.
The strangest was yet to come. The adage is, “A closed mouth gathers no foot.” Richardson felt compelled to interject himself back into the headlines by stating on Sept. 11 that everyone had stayed 30 minutes before leaving. It must have been some party for the governor to lose his memory.
A history lesson
We now have a scandal: Buttegate.
History lesson: It is a fact that President Richard Nixon knew nothing about the break-in at the Watergate on June 17, 1972. Those people who broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Office Complex and were caught did not go because of Nixon orders; they were with a re-election group.
President Nixon, though, took a great fall and ended up resigning the presidency primarily because he thought himself above the law. He took illegal actions out of ego when it came to answering questions about what he knew concerning the break-in.
Nixon could have dispensed with the entire issue in one afternoon by telling exactly what he knew, when he learned it and by suspending those of his staff who had any hand in this waterhead idea. But he did not, and the whole nation suffered for his ego.
Learn from Nixon
That brings us to Governor Richardson, who has done nothing to get this boat whoopsie story off the front pages. Rather, it would appear he enjoys the media spotlight despite the rude things being said about him.
The message sent loud and clear is that Richardson and the people around him do not have to act as the citizens are required to act. With a bellicose thrust of his ego, he asserts that he and the people around him are above the law.
Richardson should take a lesson from Nixon and fess up quickly to anything done wrong and get it off the front page. Other leaders have realized that the way to quell a story is to give absolutely all of the details the first day so the second day there are no new details.
If Richardson had stood still for a few minutes the officers would have come, taken a report and it might not have even been in the news. Likewise, insisting he stayed 30 minutes when there were that many witnesses was idiotic. Either Richardson is so starved for media attention that he will do anything to get front page stories or he has been reading his own press releases and thinks he did not need the boat since he could walk across the water back to shore.
Ultimately, he has made this a much bigger story than it ever needed to be. Maybe I was close when I called it Buttegate, and I just need to drop one letter.
Swickard is a weekly columnist for this site. You can reach him at michael@swickard.com.
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