Well, I wasn't expecting this. Bill Richardson, one of the biggest pander bears this side of Rudy Giuliani, apparently decides he doesn't want to be Hillary's VP after all (or maybe she dumped him), should she win of course. What he said below the jump.
Patrick Healy at the NY Times has the scoop.
MUSCATINE, Iowa — I just got a phone call — unprompted — from Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, a Democratic candidate for president, blasting Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for saying she would withdraw nearly all American troops from Iraq within a year of beginning redeployment.
"Senator Clinton’s comments are a stunning flip-flop — she’s been saying she would keep troops in Iraq for five years, until 2013, and now she comes up with an inconsistent, incredible turnaround," Mr. Richardson said.
Mrs. Clinton has maintained that she would leave a residual force behind in Iraq to pursue narrow missions, a position that her spokesman said she still holds. As her aides have done before, the spokesman declined to say how many troops Mrs. Clinton would leave.
Mr. Richardson’s poke begs the question: Is he, in fact, uninterested in being Mrs. Clinton’s running mate should she win the nomination? Some Democrats have suspected that he was angling for the job, given the fact that he has heretofore stuck up for her in some of the recent presidential debates.
I think Richardson's comments are surprising for a couple of reasons. The first as is noted in the piece, is that Richardson has stuck up for Clinton, most notably in a debate where he accused those who went after Clinton of "personal attacks." Secondly, Richardson to my knowledge hasn't really gone after **any** Democrat on policy. At least to this degree.
Edit to add: In the interest of full disclosure, I should point out that I am not really a Richardson fan at all.