Goofball
Posted by Adam Graham in : PoliticsWell, Governor Bill Richardson (D-Nm.) has to eat some crow. According to CBS News:
For nearly four decades, Richardson, a prominent Democrat frequently mentioned as a possible presidential candidate, has maintained he was drafted as a pitcher in 1966 by the Kansas City Athletics.
But an Albuquerque Journal investigation found no record of Richardson being drafted by the A’s, who have since moved to Oakland, or any other team. Informed by the newspaper of its findings, the governor acknowledged the error in a story published Thursday by the paper.
“After being notified of the situation (by Journal reporter Toby Smith) and after researching the matter … I came to the conclusion that I was not drafted by the A’s,” Richardson said.
The worst part of this is that it sounds like Richardson didn’t know he hadn’t been drafted or that’s the story he’s telling:
In his statement to the Journal, Richardson claimed that “as a high school player, and later after playing in the prestigious (amateur) Cape Cod League, and during my time at Tufts, I was approached by scouts who offered to draft me, under the condition that I agree ahead of time to sign a contract, if drafted. I could not agree to sign a contract, and therefore was not drafted by any of those interested teams.”
Richardson later developed arm trouble, removing any possible pro career. Before that, he said scouts had told him he “would or could” be drafted.
“In my mind, that meant I had been drafted,” Richardson said.
Okay, so if somebody suggested he could make good money working at their pizza place did Governor Richardson put his down on his resume as if he worked there? I’m left with one of two conclusions about Governor Richardson. Either:
1) He made up the whole being drafted (by the Kansas City Athletics and the Los Angeles Angels) to make himself look big.
2) He was a stereotypical dumb jock who for 40 years believed he had been drafted even though he hadn’t.
Either way, it doesn’t look good for this guy being the next President of the United States.
Richardson: “I served on the House Select Judiciary Committee.”
Reporter: “We find no record of that.”
Richardson: “Oh right, somebody just talked to me about that once but I turned them down.”
Seriously, the scandal raises all sorts of questions and just makes the Governor look bad. Here’s the part that gets me:
Richardson included the fact in a brief biography released when he successfully ran for Congress in 1982. The Clinton White House mentioned it in a 1997 news release, when Richardson was about to be named U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Who cares if the UN Ambassador can throw a good Curveball? I don’t. What Senator in their right mind would be pursuaded by this? So, Richardson has gotten embarassed for giving incorrect information that wasn’t relevant to any political job he’s ever gone for. Oh, and by the way, he’s up for re-election this year. Don’t know how this news will affect that, but it certainly doesn’t help.
Comment by Michael [Visitor]
Maybe he should have just claimed he invented the internet . His remarks won’t hurt him . Just look at his constituants .
For some real baseball news check out the Red Sox trade . Beckett and Lowell are a nice start . This team is going to spend money .
Comment by Adam Graham [Member]
I’m not sure what you mean about the people of New Mexico. It probably won’t cost him, but still getting caught in a stupid lie right before re-election is never smart.
It is a nice start. Now, how they’re going to do in the post-Theo era is going to be interesting.
Comment by stephen fox [Visitor]
Curve balls and Hatchet jobs on Governor Richardson in Baseball History
Dear Editor:
I thought I had witnessed the ultimate in newspaper hatchet jobs and curve
balls in political journalism, but this latest “discovery” by the Albuquerque
Journal that Bill Richardson was not drafted by Kansas City A’s ought to win
some kind of new prize for “Absurd Political Journalism,” since this story
even was printed in the New York Times!
Forty years ago, drafts were discussed generally, hinted at, and not
accompanied by clear cut contracts. The Governor’s recent biography makes
this perfectly clear, and I believe that he truly believed that he had been
drafted by them and several other teams. At that point, he was 19; who has
not made any errors of judgment when they were 19?
What Bill Richardson pitches to the New Mexico Legislature about health,
elementary education, fiscal policies, environmental policies, higher
education, consumer protection: these are a lot more important to me than
ancient baseball history and whether the guy was drafted by the A’s or not.
I abhor the astonishing fact that conservative papers across the nation has
picked this up and even some have described it as if he had been caught in a
lie. This is a dismal and failed attempt at character assassination.
How about the other party’s leaders’ protracted and elaborate lies about
Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction,” which were grandiloquently strewn forth
in the United Nations General Assembly before the ill-informed invasion? Are
Americans just supposed to forget about those really big lies which directly
resulted in 2000 dead G.I.’s, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths, and
billions of wasted-unless-you-are-Halliburton dollars they have caused, while
the entire nation is side-tracked by absurd articles on the Sports and
political pages about Bill Richardson?
Are these our new priorities in national politics and qualities of leadership?
Let’s get really real here, folks, for a change!
Truly,
Stephen Fox
Santa Fe
for verification:
217 W. Water
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
505 983-2002
Comment by Adam Graham [Member]
The error in judgment wasn’t at 19. Its not realizing he wasn’t draft for nearly 40 years. Either he’s been padding his resume OR he’s not very bright. One or the other.