Richardson: Where's There's Smoke, There's A Widely-Known Habit of Inappropriate and Unwelcome Touching

Got tipped by a source who is in a position to have heard this stuff first-hand from witnesses to Richardson's behavior. Note that that makes this source second-hand, and did not in fact witness any of the behavior personally.

The source is solid, I trust the source, but it's only one source, and it's second-hand. So this is not quite up to, say, Hard News Dan Rather's standards.

But still. At the moment I can't confirm much more than what's already out there, but I'm digging a bit. What I can confirm is that Richardson's unwelcome touching was not confined to his Lieutenant Governor, but seems a longstanding practice of his inflicted on quite a few people.

Here is my paraphrase of the source's report, with as many word choices changed as possible as to scrub out any sort of identifying tics of languange, and I've also removed the crucial background of how this source might know, to insulate the source from identification.

Wording has been changed, but nothing's been hyped uo. Downplayed, a bit, because some word choices were overly charged and I don't have enough to back them up. (A later report may clarify in this regard.)

I've run this paraphrase by the source to confirm it accurately reflects the original tip.

My source is in good position to have been in contact with the various people Richardson might have offended throughout his career. Their claims are "horrifying."

At least one senior member of Richardson's staff was disgusted by the behavior.

First-hand witnesses to Richardson's behavior have spoken of him pawing at women during meetings with numerous other witnesses present, apparently unconcerned about the women's feelings, or even of being seen acting in this fashion.

He seemed to lack any sort of normal restraint or social embarrassment in this regard.

Steve Clemmons' "question" for Richardson substantially recapitulates what the source has heard of Richardson. Not the crotch grabbing, but the openness with which he engaged in other inappropriate behaviors. Clemmons was, incidentally, a former Democratic operative in Richardson's home state of New Mexico, working for Bingaman, my source thinks.

This story will not go away, my source says, but will build the longer Richardson remains in the race, because it's true and there are too many witnesses to it.

Again, I'm hoping to get in touch with a first-hand witness to this to find out exactly the limits of the inappropriate touching -- specifics, not this vague stuff. My source, not having been present, can't supply such specifics to me.

Should hear back within a few days. I don't know if there's anything really bad here, apart from what appears to be an odd social retardation that disinhibits him from touching people in an uncomfortably over-familiar manner. But this seems to be a widely known problem.

PS: Based on another source, the year 2000 might be the time-frame we're talking about as regards the Milano Cafe lead.

Old But Kinda Funny-- Richardson Not Molested By Kansas City Royalss: He long maintained he'd been drafted to play in the big leagues, but the big leagues didn't seem to agree.

After checking his records, he discovered, to his astonishment, that he had not been drafted to play in Major League Baseball after all!

That happened to me one time. For several years I was convinced I was quarterback of the Denver Broncos, and then one day I'm sitting there watching the Broncos on TV, and I'm thinking, "WTF...? Did they cut me? Who's this lousy son-of-a-bitch wearing my number?"

And then I remembered, "Oh yeah, wait, that wasn't me, it was John Elway."

Boy was my face red.

I'm still waiting to break it to my parents. I think I'll finally tell them during the All-Star break, when I have a little extra time. (Or maybe I won't have a little extra time -- fingers crossed!!!)

posted by Ace at 05:07 PM

| Access Comments