The Obama Administration and the Democrat Party dodged a Hellfire missile when they round-filed Bill Richardson's appointment as Commerce Secretary in early 2009 as shown by ongoing disclosures of illegal activities and practices during Richardson's reign.  Under the new Republican governor, former Las Cruces prosecutor Susana Martinez, the State of New Mexico is now hostile territory to ex-Guv Big Bill and his cronies.  Every week brings new exposés and allegations of endemic corruption in the eight years of Richardson's administration.

Last week, civil suits were filed by state agencies in both state and federal courts against FOB (Friends of Bill) to recover hundreds of millions of dollars lost from state investment funds in pay-to-play schemes concocted within Governor Richardson's inner circle, perhaps even within the walls of his executive offices.  This week, a grand jury in Las Cruces indicted Third Judicial District Judge Mike Murphy on four separate third-degree felony counts involving a similar pay-to-play scheme relating to Richardson's judicial appointments.

Testimony from Third Judicial District Judge Lisa Schultz, a Democrat, implicates Big Bill as a direct recipient of bribes tendered by judicial candidates to ensure Bill's favor.  According to nmpolitics.net, Schultz is quoted as saying, "Judge Murphy explained that Mr. Edgar Lopez was close friends with the governor and would hand-deliver the envelopes to him."  Lopez is a real estate developer and long-time Democrat kingmaker in Las Cruces.  Judge Murphy "told Judge Schultz that Edgar Lopez always chose the new judges in the district," the report states.

Retired Third Judicial District Judge Stephen Bridgforth, who was not a Richardson appointee, "told investigators that Murphy said a person had to make a "significant donation" to be appointed to a judgeship by Richardson. Murphy told Bridgforth he gave $4,000 to Richardson."

What is even more interesting about this overt corruption is that it was once the target of a federal investigation which somehow just quietly withered away once Eric Holder took over the federal Justice Department.  Could this be another example of selective prosecution by an Obama administration seeking to avoid embarrassment?

Bill Richardson, former Democrat presidential candidate and high-in-favor Hispanic, was a disaster for New Mexico, leaving the state to contend with huge, criminal investment losses; a horrendous budget deficit; an unused boondoggle of a mass-transit rail system; an education system that is one of the nation's worst-performing; and a crime-inducing law allowing illegal immigrant criminals to obtain driver's licenses.  Many of us here in the state are praying for a Republican president and Senate in 2012 so that our U.S. attorney general once again becomes an actual prosecutor of criminals and not a political party hack.

When it comes to the State of New Mexico, Bill Richardson and his FOB, as well as the Obama administration's justice department, are up to their knees in rising sleaze.