So, what was hot when last we chatted in December?
Diane Denish was headed for the mansion, our first lady governor. There she would have a two-year entrenchment in preparation for an epic election battle with Heather Wilson.
Bill Richardson was headed for a high mucky-muck job in Washington where he was expected to be confirmed for a Cabinet post.
WHOOPS! Life is what happens when you are making plans. New Mexico’s latest ugly pay for play kerfuffle caused Big Bill to reluctantly decline the Commerce position because of the federal investigation into links between campaign donations and state contracts.
One can only speculate to what degree the Obama camp helped our governor make his decision. And one can only speculate how the Lt. Gov received the news. Stomping feet and expressive expletives would come to mind were Diane not such a lady.
In other news:
A disappointing year is behind us, and that is a good thing. I would say “good riddance,” but I have always found that an ugly and harsh phrase.
Also, there is a self-proclaimed messiah cooling his heels in a New Mexico jail because he believed God thought it a good idea for him to lay naked on a bed with two teenage followers of his cult. It’s like, “yo, God, what were you thinking?”
Every human being on earth has done something really dumb they thought was a good idea at the time, but most of us don’t claim divine inspiration for our problems. The cult leader will spend at least three years in the pokey.
Meanwhile, a former coach in Alamogordo has been sentenced to 10 months work release after admitting to having sex with a 16 year old athlete. Let’s see here. Three years jail. Ten months work release. You have to wonder if New Mexico’s wheels of justice maybe ran over a curb and hit a mailbox.
Nationally, an outstanding young man will soon be inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States. He takes office in such troubled times that most people wonder why anyone would want the job. Barack Obama has the best wishes and prayers of all except the most bigoted, the hateful, the vengeful.
Back at home, New Mexico newspapers, like their counterparts around the country, are challenged by a tanked economy and changing marketing patterns. The industry I love with a passion, that has provided my livelihood and given me so much enjoyment, is in deep doo doo.
My mentor and friend Phil Buckner, who taught me all I know about newspapering and would have taught me more had I not skipped class so often, had what the first President Bush would call “that vision thing.” Phil gathered his publishers back in the 80s when the Internet was new and hazy and warned, “this thing will one day steal our classifieds.” Well, it did. It took our classifieds and ate our lunch.
But newspaper folks are a hardy bunch and the industry will go on. A morning without a cup of coffee and a copy of the local or state paper is a bleak prospect indeed.
On a more personal level, I have decided this column will not go on. To readers around the state who rescued me from a newspaper rack or picked me up from their driveways, and even occasionally read my words before putting me on the bottom of their bird cages, you have a special place in my heart.
(Ned Cantwell – ncantwell@beyondbb.com – will paste goodbye notes in his scrapbook, even the ones that say “good riddance.”)