{"id":1136,"date":"2007-01-22T14:25:00","date_gmt":"2007-01-22T20:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/01\/richardsons-conduct-toward-women-scrutinized\/"},"modified":"2007-01-22T14:25:00","modified_gmt":"2007-01-22T20:25:00","slug":"richardsons-conduct-toward-women-scrutinized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/01\/richardsons-conduct-toward-women-scrutinized\/","title":{"rendered":"Richardson’s conduct toward women scrutinized"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Since news broke on Friday that Gov. Bill Richardson would run for president, the blogosphere has been abuzz with talk about rumors and allegations involving his conduct with women. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Three of the top liberal blogs in the nation \u2013 DailyKos, Wonkette and Huffington Post \u2013 have all made references to such rumors in recent days.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Markos Moulitsas Z\u00faniga, the administrator of DailyKos<\/a>, wrote about Richardson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>\u2019s private life being \u201cthe subject of \u2013 how should I delicately put it? \u2013 Clintonian rumors.\u201d Wonkette<\/a> referred to Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s \u201cunspecified bimbo-itis.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But the most concrete and potentially damaging allegations came Sunday from Stephen Clemmons, who runs the blog The Washington Note<\/a>. His critique was also run by Huffington Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Though he phrases his criticism in the form of a question Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> needs to address, Clemmons says people he knows have seen the governor make lewd gestures toward women in public.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cHave you behaved inappropriately or not in public settings with female members of your government administration, jokingly or not?\u201d Clemmons wrote. \u201cHave you gestured to female public servants and political appointees \u2013 who work as colleagues with you \u2013 and made lewd gestures, specifically pointing to them and then pointing at your crotch with a room full of media and other politicos there in the room?\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

As someone who worked as a senior staff member to Sen. Jeff Bingaman when Richardson<\/st1:city> was a congressman, Clemmons claims to know well many who have worked for Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> over the years.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI ask (the question about the lewd gesture) because I was not in the room when this particular incident occurred but many others were \u2013 and rumors have long swept around Santa Fe<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> that Bill Richardson makes a constant festive joke out of demeaning women,\u201d Clemmons wrote.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

And, he wrote, the allegations go way beyond comments made by Lt. Gov. Diane Denish last year that Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> \u201cpokes me\u2026 pinches my neck. He touches my hip, my thigh, sort of the side of my leg,\u201d and that such toughing makes her avoid Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. The allegations Clemmons brings up, he wrote, are \u201cabout a far more crude kind of gesture that demeans professional women.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> was asked about such blogger comments during a news conference this afternoon, and about whether he can pass the test of enormous scrutiny inherent in running for president.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cSure, there\u2019s going to be enormous scrutiny. I\u2019m ready for it,\u201d Richardson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

He appeared at the news conference with his wife, who, almost certainly by design, pointed out their 40 years together.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson<\/st1:city> pointed out that he passed background checks to become U.S.<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> secretary of energy and U.N. ambassador, survived the public scrutiny of seven congressional and two gubernatorial elections, and was considered by John Kerry as a potential running mate in 2004.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI was vetted for vice president and found solid, but I wasn\u2019t chosen, obviously,\u201d Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said. \u201cBut I\u2019m confident.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Such a vetting is solid, but not foolproof. It\u2019s important to remember that President Bush\u2019s 1976 arrest for drunken driving didn\u2019t become public until a few days before the 2000 presidential election. He went through two gubernatorial campaigns, a congressional campaign and most of a presidential campaign before it came out.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> was asked about the bloggers like Clemmons who are making such comments, and spoke of the important role bloggers play in democracy.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI hope you continue your issues-based campaign,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t directly address the questions raised by Clemmons.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Clemmons wrote that Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> either needs to follow the lead of Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who \u201cfessed up to some of his past misbehavior and moved forward successfully,\u201d or \u201ccategorically deny\u201d that he has done anything that could have been perceived as \u201cseriously demeaning to women.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> will likely have to address these issues more directly as the campaign progresses. It\u2019s sure to be a topic the press and Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s opponents scrutinize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since news broke on Friday that Gov. Bill Richardson would run for president, the blogosphere has been abuzz with talk about rumors and allegations involving his conduct with women. Three of the top liberal blogs in the nation \u2013 DailyKos, Wonkette and Huffington Post \u2013 have all made references to such rumors in recent days. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}