Clearly New Mexico

Two items today… Marjorie at M-Pyre poses a burning question: whatever ever happened to Monahan's essay contest? Plus... Carville lobs more insults at Bill Richardson and the Gov responds.

Marjorie calls out Monahan

Yes, Marjorie at M-Pyre blog reminded us today that the date for Joe Monahan's lobbyist sponsored essay contest (publicity stunt) quietly came and went without so much as a grunt from Concern Troll Joe.

As you will recall, Monahan was savaged by a firestorm of protest from the blogosphere when he tried to peddle the peculiar notion he claimed to have gotten from an anonymous Roundhouse source (his "alligator") that the main obstacle to achieving key ethics reforms in New Mexico is the efforts of ethics reformers themselves! His response to his takedown by the bloggers was to announce a lobbyist sponsored "essay contest" for college students to come up with a lobbying/PR plan for ethics reform.

Here's Marjorie's money quote:

The time has never been more right for comprehensive ethics reform, given the highly publicized ethics violations and corruption in this state. But according to Monahan, we should take baby steps over many years, because not only were legislators not swayed when they should have been, the public is too confused by the proposals and therefore can't weigh in adequately. As you may remember, I couldn't help but ask in response what person in their right mind doesn't know what "campaign contribution limits" means? The fact is that the public is a lot savvier than Joe likes to suggest.

(the complete post here)

(And in an earlier post here, the conjecture was offered up that Monahan's alligator source is Bruce Donisthorpe.)

The Carville vs. Richardson slugfest

James Carville just won't let it go, continuing to fire shots at Bill Richardson over the NM Governor's recent endorsement of Barack Obama.

Over the past three days, the two exchanged dueling op eds in the Washington Post:

Carville:
Disloyalty That Merits An Insult

Richardson:
Loyalty to my Country

For all of the entertainment value we've derived from Carville's faux populist posturing over the years, at times like this it's worth noting all of the corporate shilling he's done. Check out the 2005 documentary, Our Brand is Crisis, which gives a tremendously instructive behind-the-scenes look at the role Carville played in the 2002 Bolivian presidential election.

From a Buzzflash review:

If you have doubts about the globalization and "neo-liberal" strategy that ties IMF and World Bank policies to "expanding democracy," this is an explosive documentary to view. It's all the more disheartening to see a key Democratic consulting firm on the wrong side of a foreign presidential campaign, this one in Bolivia in 2002. It's not the first time that James Carville's group has backed an international DLC-type against populist challengers.

Carville has become a member of the wealthy, entrenched ruling elite. His tart folksiness is now more a performance than a reflection of his political outlook.

As one of the consulting firm's senior advisors declares in Bolivia,"We must own crisis and we must brand crisis. I think we should make a commitment: We should bet the house on the message."

Here's the full review and the NY Times.