NM Governor RIchardson's aide indicted

By Russ Vaughn

In a development that may be raising the proverbial pucker factor for Governor Bill Richardson and his Democrat cronies here in New Mexico, the Feds have indicted Ruffin Poole, top aide and legal counsel to former North Carolina governor, Mike Easley. Poole, who was known as "Little Governor" for his control of access to Easley and the levers of power in North Carolina during Easley's term, has been hit with 51 federal counts of extortion, bribery, racketeering, mail fraud and money laundering. The WRAL-TV website says:

"Easley isn't named in the indictment, but observers said the level of detail in the 64 page indictment show that investigators have interviewed witnesses extensively and might have made deals with some as they continue to work on the case."

Meanwhile, out here in the Land of Encashment, uh, Enchantment, Big Bill is up to his eyeballs in a state financial scandal which New Mexico news sources are reporting may have cost the state more than $200 million in corrupt investments. One former investment advisor has already testified in a related New York State scandal, that he made substantial political contributions to Richardson projects and that he:

"...ensured that Aldus recommended proposed investments that were pushed on him by politically-connected individuals in New Mexico, knowing that these politically-connected individuals or their associates stood to benefit financially or politically from the investments and that the investments were not necessarily in the best economic interest of New Mexico."

Those politically-connected individuals were all Friends of Bill and just as in North Carolina, where Poole served as his boss's cutout, it will no doubt be Richardson's cutouts who feel the first sting of indictment, since Big Bill was very careful not to dip his fingers directly in the pie. But then, to loosely paraphrase Samuel Johnson, nothing quite so focuses the mind of a cutout as the hope of cutting a deal in the morning.

The Obama DoJ has already tried to shovel litter over Big Bill's booboo's back in 2009, but these developments in North Carolina, combined with the fed-up mood of a national electorate increasingly angry over the overt corruption of the Democrat Party, may make a Democratic Milagro in New Mexico a bit more problematic than Eric Holder and his boss ever envisioned.

Big Bill may someday be remembered just like that other Democratic presidential wannabee, John Edwards:

"Too dirty to serve in a Chicago Democrat's Administration."

Now that's distinction.
****************************************************************************************

Postscript: Since my writing this, the Albuquerque Journal has published yet another front page story (subscription only) of a new federal investigation of another Richardson crony and national Democrat media consultant, Armando Gutierrez, who has worked on three Democratic presidential campaigns and is already facing trial in July on 50 state charges of corruption along with Richardson's former Democrat Secretary of State, Rebecca Vigil-Giron. For conservatives, Big Bill and his Bud's are a gift that keeps on giving.