Monday, March 24, 2008

Why Bill Richardson Does What He Does   [Byron York]

Looks like James Carville is not backing down from his quote comparing Bill Richardson to Judas.  "I was quoted accurately and in context, and I was glad to give the quote and I was glad I gave it," Carville told the New York Times.  "I'm not apologizing, I'm not resigning, I'm not doing anything."

Now seems as good a time as any to give my personal theory on the Richardson Obama endorsement.  Like many others, I feel certain that if Hillary Clinton were leading at this moment, Richardson would have endorsed her; indeed, there were times in the Democratic debates in which he seemed to be auditioning for a job in a Hillary Clinton administration.  But I don't think Richardson sees himself as an ingrate, and certainly not a traitor, for endorsing Obama.  Rather, I think Richardson believes that, whatever he owes the Clintons for his appointments as Energy Secretary and United Nations Ambassador, he fully repaid his debt during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

It was Richardson, you'll remember, who went out of his way to hold open a job for Lewinsky at the U.N.  Testimony before the independent counsel's grand jury showed that Richardson was unusually eager to accommodate Lewinsky.  So when the scandal exploded, the news was not only embarrassing, but Richardson also had to endure hours of testimony before the grand jury.  And a lot of the questions clearly made him uncomfortable.  

In late 1998, when grand jury transcripts were made public, I wrote a story for the American Spectator about Richardson's role in the affair.  After hearing about Lewinsky from White House chief of staff John Podesta, Richardson kept a sharp lookout for her promised resume. When it arrived, he acted quickly:

Richardson examined Lewinsky's resume the same afternoon it appeared on the fax machine. "I must say that the resume impressed me," he told prosecutors. "She worked in the Department of Defense....She had worked in the White House in legislative affairs....As a former congressman, I thought that was impressive." He testified that he told [assistant Isabelle] Watkins to set up an interview with Lewinsky.

Phone records obtained by Starr's investigators show that someone using Richardson's office telephone extension called Lewinsky at home that very night, October 21 [1997], at seven o'clock. But there is conflicting testimony over who spoke to whom. Lewinsky testified that she spoke to Richardson himself; the ambassador denied it.

Lewinsky told Starr's prosecutors that she specifically remembered the phone ringing and a secretary telling her, "Hold for Ambassador Richardson." She was surprised that Richardson was calling. According to notes of a Lewinsky interview with prosecutors, she "was upset because (she) did not want to work at the United Nations, no one had called her to tell her Richardson would be calling, and she did not want to get stuck working there with no other opportunities."

According to Lewinsky, Richardson told her he understood from John Podesta that she was interested in working at the U.N. In August, when prosecutors questioned Lewinsky under oath, they asked, "How do you know that you actually spoke with him?"

"Well," Lewinsky answered, "I remember because I was shocked and I was, I was very nervous. And—"

"Because the Ambassador was on the phone?"

"Exactly."

In addition, transcripts of phone calls between Lewinsky and [Linda] Tripp support the idea that Lewinsky talked directly to Richardson. In one conversation, Tripp commiserated with an obviously tearful Lewinsky. The president simply didn't understand the suffering Lewinsky was enduring, both women said. He didn't know what she was going through, Tripp told Lewinsky. For example, "He doesn't know that you received a personal (censored) phone call from the ambassador to the U.N.," Tripp said—while Lewinsky sobbed in agreement.

Phone records subpoenaed from Richardson's office appear to support Lewinsky's contention that she talked to Richardson. Richardson's extension was 4404; Isabelle Watkins' line was 4402. The call to Lewinsky's apartment was made from the 4404 extension.

Richardson and Watkins both maintained that Watkins occasionally made calls from Richardson's extension, which they said must have happened in this case. But Starr's prosecutors were skeptical.

Much questioning on that and other issues ensued.  The issue was never resolved, but the evidence certainly left the impression that Richardson himself made the call.  In any event, by the time his grand jury testimony was over, Richardson must have felt that he had repaid any debt owed to the Clintons.  And I wouldn't be surprised if he felt that way today.

03/24 05:15 PMShare