The Week in Review

Gary King

The week just passed began with a startling editorial from the Santa Fe New Mexican. The New Mexican is a newspaper that serves one of the greatest bastions of progressive population in the United States. The column said among other things that New Mexico Attorney General Gary King: “Has been dragging his public trust to political depths previously unplumbed.” By the end of the week A.G. King responded to the criticisms at a not so hastily called press conference. Apparently, King doesn’t do much of anything quickly, including defending the lack of speed of his own actions.

Surrounded by reporters on Friday, King repeated much of the same language he has used in tepid press releases to explain why things go so slowly in his office. In an era where elected officials and appointees in the scandal-plagued Richardson administration still consistently grab most of the media spotlight, it is saying plenty that New Mexico’s A.G. has managed to garner so much of the negative attention.

On Monday we posted a story quoting NM Republican Party Executive Director Bryan Watkins. Watkins said the Democrat’s position in opposition to a Voter Identification law doesn’t pass the “straight face test.”

Here I have to fervently disagree. Many conversations have been had with Democrats on this topic. To a person, they have acknowledged that is ok to require identification to cash a check, rent a DVD, use a credit card, or even make a change on a cell phone account. And each has also claimed it would somehow DISENFRANCHISE a person if they were required to produce an I.D. when they vote. And each and every Democrat asserted the veracity of these seemingly irreconcilable contradictions, with a perfectly straight face.
On Tuesday former Lieutenant Governor Diane Denish was quoted by NMPolitics.net as saying she had not taken the idea of making a run for Congressional District #1 “off the table.” Later in the week Denish, who lives in Albuquerque, offered an op-ed piece that was critical of Governor Martinez, including some veiled zingers on jobs.

Diane Denish

And still later in the week, the news came of a substantial drop in NM unemployment rate. Bucking a national trend of a rising joblessness rate, the unemployment rate in New Mexico dropped to 6.9% last month. Does Susana Martinez own the falling unemployment rate in her state? You can take it to the bank that she would be forced to own a rising unemployment rate.

Martin Heinrich continues to offer at least one contradiction each week. This week he provided two. First, while speaking to the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, Heinrich suggested he favored lowering corporate tax rates to level the competitive landscape and spur job creation. Unfortunately, this claim by the ambitious Congressman contradicts virtually every vote he has ever cast. Second, Heinrich voted in support of President Obama’s Libyan military incursion later on in the week. He did so after publicizing the writing of a letter he sent to the president back in April urging him to “bring the troops home.” It would seem that Heinrich is truly tormented by all the position choices in front of him.
We posted a national story from the Rasmussen organization on how poorly President Obama is polling. Low and behold the White House announced at mid-week that it was tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to drive down oil prices. Of course there was no change in Obama’s supply restricting domestic energy policies, just a drawing down of our emergency reserves. This approach pretty much mirrors the White House stand on anything resembling a “reserve” in the U.S. The president is tapping our nation's reserves rather than building and enhancing them.

Tim Geithner

The “Incredible Gall of the Week Award” has to go to U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. It was Geithner who had the temerity late in the week to say the president’s decision to tap the Strategic Oil Reserve was NOT political. Is it our imagination or is Geithner’s nose getting a bit longer every time he appears on television to make a statement?

In a decision that was widely expected (and predicted on News New Mexico) the NM Supreme Court struck down the legality of a so-called “veto” by Governor Martinez. Martinez had attempted to change the funding on a bill from $150,000 to $50,000 by removing a digit. The court said it is a no-no to attempt to remove or change numbers in a bill.

Chris Garcia

And finally, in what has to be characterized as a sign of the times story, former UNM President Chris Garcia was arrested and booked Thursday morning on charges of promoting prostitution, tampering with evidence, and conspiracy. What the heck. At the age of 71, Garcia only teaches Political Science at UNM part time. If these charges are proven true, it would seem the president finally managed to find something to do with all of his spare time. Move over Anthony Weiner. This story has fun written all over it.

The Week in Review