If anyone had any doubts that Hillary was going to take the Secretary of State job, the announcement that New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, her chief competitor for the job, is being named Commerce Secretary should put them to rest.

I like Richardson.  I’ve met him on a few occasions, and wrote a couple of speeches and did some press for him when he was U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.  He would have made a fine Secretary of State, and his experience as an executive would have helped him reform Foggy Bottom.  But I find his selection to head Commerce quite odd.

I don’t know whether Richardson will do well at Commerce, or it he’s the right pick.  But it seems to me that he would have been a far better choice for the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.  As Governor of New Mexico, Richardson pursued a number of environmental initiatives, including a major effort to make the state government carbon neutral.

I wish him the best at Commerce.

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