Keeping tabs on New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as he seeks the Democratic nomination for president …

    IVY TALK: Speaking to student Democrats at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, Richardson didn’t sound like the governor of a state made rich by oil and gas production: “Some people say that we have to have a balance between drilling and environmentalism,” Richardson is quoted as saying in The Dartmouth. “I don’t believe that’s always possible. I choose environmentalism.”

    KNUCKLE BALL: The Dartmouth Democrats also asked Richardson about his one-time claim to have been drafted by a Major League baseball team. That never happened, as reported by the Albuquerque Journal in 2005. Richardson said in New Hampshire he had been mistaken. “Mistakes are made. I made a mistake,” The Associated Press quoted him as saying. But then he offered up this: “There was a scout who came out and said, ‘I told Richardson’s father that we would give him $25,000 to sign with a team called the Houston Colts.’ Now that hasn’t come out, but it will come out.” News flash: It did come out. In a 2005 letter to the editor in the Journal, that scout wrote he was authorized to offer Richardson the signing bonus, but Richardson’s father declined it because he wanted his son to go to college. The scout, Jack Johnston, said Richardson was definitely a bigleague prospect and that he might have been drafted by some club, “only not mine.”

    GEEZER WATCH: Terry Michael writing in The Washington Times, runs down the depressing list of ailments that have befallen those in the race for the presidency and their spouses — John McCain’s skin cancer, Rudy Giuliani’s prostate cancer, Bill Clinton’s heart bypass surgery, Elizabeth Edwards’ breast cancer — and comes to the conclusion it’s because the field is full of codgers. Then he writes: “Potential contender Al Gore is suffering from global girth, an unyouthful appearance problem that has also plagued Gov. Bill Richardson. If I were seeking to be leader of the free world in 2008, I’d make sure I got plenty of rest, counted my calories, took my daily 81 milligram aspirin and hit the gym hard.”

    STUD FINDER: The Hill blog puts the words “Richardson” and “stud” together in a sentence: “Why are underdogs such fun? New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is having a great week, and it is far more entertaining than the exhausting Clinton/Obama rivalry marathon we will be subjected to all year. Not only did Richardson raise more money than his secondtier colleagues … but he got President Bush to bless his trip to North Korea, creating an opportunity to remind everyone again that he is the Foreign Policy Stud of the Democratic contest.”

    WHO? WHERE?: The Blog of the Moderate Left ranks the Dems and includes this assessment of Richardson, whom the blog identifies as the governor of Arizona: “Hasn’t done anything major. That’s the plan. Only hope is for both Clinton and Edwards to implode, positioning him as the anti-Obama. But poking his head up now doesn’t help that happen.”

By Leslie Linthicum, Journal staff writer

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