Kos is right: from a credential perspective, no Presidential candidate has the resume that Bill Richardson has: Governor, UN Ambassador, Energy Secretary, reputation as a skilled international negotiator. But now that he's in the race, we shouldn't wait for Republicans to raise character issues that have surrounded his reputation. Steve Clemons wastes no time starting the questioning:
Have you behaved inappropriately or not in public settings with female members of your government administration, jokingly or not? Have you gestured to female public servants and political appointees -- who work as colleagues with you -- and made lewd gestures, specifically pointing to them and then pointing at your crotch with a room full of media and other politicos there in the room?
I ask this not to demean or undermine Richardson.
I ask it because I was not in the room when this particular incident occurred but many others were -- and rumors have long swept around Santa Fe that Bill Richardson makes a constant festive joke out of demeaning women. These incidents don't have to do with the comments by Lt. Governor Diane Denish that Richardson is a "touchy" and "feely" Governor. They have to do with questions about a far more crude kind of gesture that demeans professional women.
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