Bye Bye Heather

While everyone is rightfully talking about Obama, I want to note the end of the loathsome Heather Wilson's political career. Her "maverickism" went so far as to criticize Bush on occasional military issues. Her personal ethics stopped the moment she took office. Among other things, she was central to the U.S. attorney scandal. Once Pete Domenici's protege, a late endorsement from the old man could not stop her from losing the Republican primary for his seat to Steve Pearce, a hard right loco from southern New Mexico who ought to make a good sacrificial lamb to Tom Udall in November. I guess she'll have to content herself with a lucrative lobbying career. Bye bye!

Heather Wilson: New Mexico's Queen of Slime

Marjorie has a great post about Heather Wilson's vote-buying scam. She links to F-Brilliant, who has a fantastic and disturbing rundown of the whole situation. There was a time when Wilson was considered the rising star of New Mexico politics. As tough as they come, she consistently fended off Democratic challengers for her very purple Albuquerque area congressional district. Then she was tainted in the federal prosecutor scandal--both her and her mentor Pete Domenici directly pressured the US attorneys to prosecute for supposed Democratic corruption and then had US Attorney David Iglesias fired when he refused to cooperate. With Domenici retiring, Wilson is running for his Senate seat. But she is facing tough opposition from Steve Pearce, the congressman from southern New Mexico. But it hardly matters who wins the primary for Tom Udall will almost certainly crush either like a bug.

But now Wilson is in even more hot water and showing her worst side. She paid delegates at the recent Bernalillo County Republican Party convention to vote for certain delegates. Also implicated is the man hoping to replace her in Congress, County sheriff Darren White. If that wasn't crazy enough, her staff pressured Albuquerque news radio station KKOB to pull the story, which led to the resignation of news anchor Laura MacCallum.

Although New Mexicans are by no means adverse to corruption, it's hard not to see this as extremely damaging to Wilson's political career. Her utter lack of ethics is flabbergasting. If I were Steve Pearce, I'd be running on her consistent ethical violations, something that may play well with the large numbers of rural New Mexico Republicans as well as the defense industry folks, a strength of Wilson's.