Richardson blasts partisan divide in Florida speech.

 

Forget Hillary Clinton. The new master of Clintonesque triangulation (finding the midpoint of policy extremes) is New Mexico's own man of the radical middle -- Gov. Bill Richardson.

Richardson addressed some 400 people at the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches on Monday and decried the partisanship that prevents people of good will from crossing the aisle in Congress in either direction, according to the Palm Beach Daily News (thanks to a link on The Drudge Report).

That partisanship stands in the way of real debate, said Richardson in what the Governor's Office had billed as a "foreign-policy" address.

Once upon a time, Richardson said, "You'd sit down in a room, lock the door and come up with a solution. That's the way to go," the Daily News reported.

Richardson -- a former congressman, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and Secretary of Energy in the Clinton administration -- said the nation is deadlocked on three key issues: immigration, energy policy and foreign policy.

To ease immigration crisis -- "a divisive, nasty issue that is tearing us apart" -- Richardson suggested stronger border security; enforcing immigration laws with employers of illegal workers; a path toward legal status for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already here; and a relationship with Mexico and Haiti (it was a Florida speech, remember) to deal with smugglers, the paper reported.

Richardson also called for a reduction in dependence on foreign oil and a "Marshall Plan" for energy policy, said the Daily News.

And finally, the paper reported, Richardson criticized fellow Democrats for going overseas and bashing President Bush, saying contending sides should sit down in a room "to find a solution."

The globe-trotting governor called for diplomatic solutions to emerging nuclear ambitions by North Korea and Iran and urged revitalizing the United Nations because, he said, "it doesn't work."

Could Richardson -- who described himself as "an optimist and a patriot" as well as a "new progressive" who believes in "free enterprise, social justice accountability and responsibility" -- be running for something? Other than re-election as governor?

He's certainly touching all the bases.

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