Bill Richardson and Eric Schmidt Go to North Korea

Former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson is going on a humanitarian trip to North Korea with his best bud, Google executive Eric Schmidt, even though the State Department doesn't want them to go. Stop harshing our mellow, State Department! What excellent adventures will these radical dudes have over there?

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Quote Unquote: Billy the Kid Just Can't Catch a Break

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson gives his reasoning for the very important decision he made today…

"I've decided not to pardon Billy the Kid because of a lack of conclusiveness and the historical ambiguity as to why Governor Wallace reneged on his pardon."

I can't really come up with a better response to this than commenter Not Adam Schramm, so I'll just let him carry this one…

"I guess if he decides to run for office again in the future he doesn't want to get a reputation for being soft on 130 years-dead criminals."

The Decision of Bill Richardson's Career — Should He Give Billy the Kid a Governor's Pardon?

Former presidential contender and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has some incredibly important governoring to get done before he leaves office at the end of this week.

It's the hard decisions like trying to decide whether or not cowboys who died more than a hundred years should be pardoned of their cowboy crimes that separate the governors from average nobodies like you and me…

Richardson, a Billy the Kid buff, is looking at an old promise by another governor, and not the Kid's cold-blooded reputation, in deciding whether to issue a posthumous pardon, officials said…

[Territorial Gov. Lew Wallace] had promised to grant Bonney amnesty for the fatal shooting of Lincoln County Sheriff William Brady and other "misdeeds" if he agreed to testify before a grand jury investigating another murder. Bonney cooperated, but the pardon didn't happen…

"I think he will take the responses into account, particularly the learned responses," Richardson's deputy chief of staff, Eric Witt, said Wednesday.

Oh my! I hope those "learned responses" are "learned" enough. I would hate to imagine Gov. Richardson being forced to make a decision like this without the very pinnacle of cowboy expertise at his disposal.

From the Pork Barrel: Letting Go and Letting Probe

* Best headline of the day: "Prosecutor Won't Let Bill Richardson Put Probe Behind Him" – Maybe Richardson should start him off with a little wine.

* What's up with Michele Bachmann and God? Is she maybe seeing other deities?

* Will the Swine Flu cause Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart to get super angry?*

* Obama's "green jobs czar" demands to know the truth about ridiculous 9/11 conspiracy theory.

^{* Nerd!!!}

Does Val Kilmer Have the Political Weight to be Governor?

Actor Val Kilmer already has a decent amount of experience playing big, fat, bearded drop-outs in the movies, so it would seem that making the leaping into playing the Governor of New Mexico in real life would be a no-brainer…

Fresh from the inauguration, actor Val Kilmer is pondering running for governor in 2010, when Democrat Bill Richardson's second term ends.

"I'm just looking for ways to be contributive," Kilmer told The Associated Press on Thursday. "And if that ends up being where I can make a substantial contribution, then I'll run."

He certainly has been making "a substantial contribution" recently.

A Kilmer candidacy could throw a monkey wrench into the well-oiled Democratic machine of Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, who's already running for the job.

The very idea of that is idiotic.

Lt. Gov. Denish isn't nearly obese enough to tackle the job.