Long Road Behind Him, Richardson Gets a Post

Bill Richardson joined Barack Obama for the announcement Wednesday that Mr. Richardson was commerce secretary-designate. By PETER BAKER, Published: December 3, 2008

CHICAGO — At some point during the long series of Democraticpresidential debates, Bill Richardson came to realize that he was not exactly the center of attention. Most of the questions were going to the star candidates, and he began tuning out.

So when a moderator turned to him with a question on one occasion when he was not listening, he panicked — until he was saved by the candidate next to him. “Katrina!”Barack Obama whispered. “Katrina!” Mr. Richardson then offered his response on the hurricane that had ravaged New Orleans.

“He could have thrown me under the bus,” Mr. Richardson later recalled, “but he stood behind me.”

Mr. Obama stood with him again Wednesday, in announcing here that Mr. Richardson, governor of New Mexico, was his choice for secretary of commerce.

For Mr. Richardson, who has gone from being the nation’s most prominent Hispanic official to an afterthought on the presidential campaign trail, from a target of the angry Clinton camp to cabinet nominee of the president-elect, the journey has been tumultuous. His destination proved to be not the presidency, as he had hoped, or the vice presidency or secretary of state. But Mr. Obama said Wednesday that it was not a consolation prize, either.

“Well,” he said, flanked by Mr. Richardson, “commerce secretary is a pretty good job, you know. It’s a member of my key economic team that is going to be dealing with the most significant issue that America faces right now, and that is how do we put people back to work and rejuvenate the economy.”

Mr. Richardson, 61, is the third defeated member of the Democratic presidential field to join the nascent administration, after Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, selected for secretary of state. It could get a little uncomfortable in the Cabinet Room when Mr. Richardson looks across the table at Mrs. Clinton, whose husband appointed him to high office only to see him endorse Mr. Obama instead of her last spring.

In the end, though, Mrs. Clinton got the job he had wanted, so she can afford to move on. Certainly Mr. Richardson sounded ready to do so on Wednesday. “There are some who speak of a team of rivals,” he said. “But I’ve never seen it that way. Past competitors, yes. But ‘rivals’ implies something harder-edged and less forgiving.”

Mr. Richardson’s path to the Obama cabinet has been long and winding. After being elected to the House in 1982, he earned a reputation as a diplomatic troubleshooter parachuting into danger zones to free prisoners or negotiate deals. President Bill Clinton made him ambassador to the United Nations and later secretary of energy.

Along the way, Mr. Richardson became known for a gregarious drive as well as a taste for the limelight. In his memoir, he agreed with the 1992 Almanac of American Politics, which called him “an ambitious and often pushy politician who has sometimes taken impolitic stands for no apparent reason except the conviction that they were right.” George magazine, less kindly, ranked him a top-10 “publicity hound.”

His tenure at the Energy Department was marred by reports of nuclear security lapses atLos Alamos National Laboratory. At one contentious hearing, Senator Robert C. Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia, told him that he would never again “receive the support of the Senate of the United States for any office to which you might be appointed.”

Al Gore passed him over for vice president in 2000, so Mr. Richardson returned to New Mexico to run for governor, at one point setting a Guinness Book world record by shaking 13,392 hands in eight hours. But he found little success at the presidential level this year. After dropping out, he grew a beard, a small act of defiance as he contemplated his future.

Seeking his endorsement, the Clinton camp believed that he was holding out for a promise of appointment as secretary of state. When he backed Mr. Obama, he was compared to Judas by the Clinton adviser James Carville.

Mr. Richardson denied such crass motives, citing instead Mr. Obama’s ability “to bridge our divisions as a nation.”

Mr. Carville remains unconvinced. Asked about Wednesday’s announcement, he said: “I think it’s fine. I’ve had my say on him. I was quoted accurately and in context.”

Hispanic leaders had lobbied for Mr. Richardson, arguing that Latino voters were a vital part of the coalition that had brought Mr. Obama victory. The president-elect said Wednesday that he had picked Mr. Richardson because of his experience, not his ethnicity, but vowed to produce a diverse team. He has his eye on Representative Xavier Becerra, Democrat of California, for United States trade representative.

“I think people are going to say this is one of the most diverse cabinets and White House staffs of all time,” Mr. Obama said. “But more importantly, they’re going to say these are all people of outstanding qualifications and excellence.”

For Mr. Richardson, it is time to return to the national stage. The beard is gone, much to the disappointment of Mr. Obama, who joked that “I thought that whole Western rugged look was really working for him.”

The commerce post may often be simply a plum for a fund-raiser, but it is nonetheless a step up the official chart. Assuming Mr. Byrd was wrong and the Senate confirms him, Mr. Richardson will be 10th in line for the presidency, up from 15th when he was energy secretary.

And there are still rungs to climb, admirers say. “This isn’t the final stop for Bill Richardson,” said Brian S. Colón, New Mexico Democratic chairman. “I’d bet money on it.”