Ex-governors gather no moss

Time to catch up with former Govs. Bill Richardson and Gary Johnson.

Richardson wrote about North Korea and his trip there last month in an opinion piece published Feb. 1 by The Washington Post.

Richardson said that based upon what he heard from government officials and saw on TV in North Korea, the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, was preparing to shift the nation’s focus from nuclear weapons and ballistic missile development to economic development.

Oops. This week, North Korea carried out another nuclear test.

In Richardson’s defense, he did hedge his bet, cautioning that Kim’s shift in focus to economic development was reversible.

Richardson, who visited North Korea several times as a governor and as a member of the U.S. House, led a private delegation to North Korea in January that included Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google.

The U.S. State Department advised against the trip, calling the visit unhelpful.

In the opinion piece in The Washington Post, headlined “Time for a reboot with North Korea,” Richardson again called on the U.S. government to engage in direct dialogue with North Korea.

“Dialogue is not an endorsement or legitimization of your counterpart’s positions,” Richardson and co-author Mickey Bergman wrote. They also said North Korea needed to stop its nuclear weapons tests and ballistic missile launches.

The Obama administration halted engagement efforts with North Korea and suspended food assistance last April after the country launched a long-range ballistic missile with what it called an “Earth observation satellite.”

At various times, the United States has provided aid — more than $1 billion over the years — and imposed sanctions to try to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

Bergman, co-author of The Washington Post article, is senior adviser to the Richardson Center for Global Engagement and executive director of the Aspen Institute Global Alliances Program.

Richardson’s website lists coming speaking engagements in Texas, Florida, Massachusetts and New York City.

He is scheduled to give the keynote speech Wednesday in Boca Raton, Fla., at the Wall Street Conference, a meeting of financial investors. Richardson is a member of the board of directors of DayStar Technologies, a developer of solar photovoltaic products, which will also make a presentation at the conference.

Richardson has joined several profit and nonprofit boards since ending his eight years as governor in December 2010. When he joined the DayStar board, he was given 25,000 common shares in the company (current value: about $35,000), according to a DayStar filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He also receives a $40,000 annual retainer and $1,000 worth of shares for every board meeting.

Continuing campaign

The presidential election was Nov. 6, but for former Gov. Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate, the campaign is far from over.

As honorary chairman of the Our America Initiative, Johnson spread his “live free” message this week in an online question-and-answer session on the Reddit website, a sort of bulletin board for public comment.

Some of his comments:

♦ “Officeholders, for the most part, are there to hold office, not to lead.”

♦ “I am an athlete, and my athletics have resulted in a firm belief that life is a journey, not a destination. That realization is what I value most.”

♦ “I am open to a reasonable conversation about preventing those with serious mental challenges from getting guns. However, I am extremely concerned about the government coming up with criteria for your and my mental ‘competence.’”

♦ “The only way to ensure America remains viable for generations to come is to control spending.”

Johnson announced that his upcoming U.S. tour, with a focus on college campuses, will begin in April.

The former governor has taken some time off since the election.

Johnson’s Facebook page says that on New Year’s Eve, he, son Erik and daughter Seah reached the summit of Mount Aconcagua in Argentina, which at 22,841 feet is the highest peak in South America. Just a couple days before, two climbers from Colorado and Oregon died on the mountain.

Johnson says he has now has reached the summits of the highest mountains on five of the seven continents. He climbed Mount Everest, the world’s tallest peak, in 2003, the year after he left the Governor’s Office.

Johnson says he is spending the winter at his home in Taos and skiing every chance he gets.

UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Thom Cole at tcole@abqjournal.com or 505-992-6280 in Santa Fe. Go to www.abqjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.