A Note on Bill Richardson

The world is mourning Bill Richardson I guess, and I am not questioning his skill at difficult diplomacy. I understand why that is the focus.

But I lived in New Mexico during his governorship and I have to say that the guy was, on a personal level, an absolute sleazeball. His treatment of women made Bill Clinton look like Jimmy Carter. Every young conventionally attractive woman in New Mexico politics in that era has stories of Richardson openly hitting on them, not just in private, but in public too. I have heard many of these stories. I was also shocked when he tried to run for president, largely because there was no way this was not going to come out, not to mention his, uh, somewhat questionable financial dealings. At times, the sexual harassment stuff did go public. But I guess because Richardson never was a serious candidate for the presidency, everyone just decided to let it go. While The Daily Mail is not exactly my go to source here, most of this is probably true.

Again, I don’t have a problem with people focusing on Richardson’s remarkable diplomatic record. But at the very least, the obituaries of the man should at least mention the well documented fact that he was a fucking sleaze and he made a lot of women I know feel very uncomfortable.