UPDATE: 8:45pm EST: Oh it gets better!! Via Ed at HOTAIR:

It looks as if Barack Obama and his transition team know how badly Bill Richardson’s resignation reflects on them.  They have started leaking to the press that Richardson’s to blame for the embarrassing spectacle this afternoon of his withdrawal as a Cabinet nominee.  Jake Tapper has the details:

Sources tell ABC News that officials on the Obama Transition Team feel that before he was formally offered the job of commerce secretary, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was not forthcoming with them about the federal investigation that is looking into whether the governor steered a state contract towards a major financial contributor.

Once the investigation became more widely known through national media reports last month, sources tell ABC News, the Obama Transition Team realized the FBI would not be able to give Richardson a clean political bill of health before the new administration is ready to send his nomination up to the Senate for confirmation….

ACE HQ has it via AP and MSNBC (to whom I shall spare you the linky, give ACE the traffic instead :0))

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, tapped in December by President-elect Barack Obama to serve as secretary of Commerce, has withdrawn his name for the position, citing a pending investigation into a company that has done business with his state.

“Let me say unequivocally that I and my Administration have acted properly in all matters and that this investigation will bear out that fact,” he said Sunday in a report by NBC News. “But I have concluded that the ongoing investigation also would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process.”

AND IT’S PAY TO PLAY!! BWAAAAA FRAKIN HA-HA-HA!!!!! Rollin on the frakin floor now, O..M…G… Blago must be laughing his axx off too and wondering what would happen if RICHARDSON tried to appoint a senator right now? he IS under an investigation after all, which according to Reid and co makes ANYTHING he does now suspect even if he is not impeached or indicted right? frakin maroons

the rank hypocrisy of it all astounds me, but one crooked Judas rat is out of his coveted cabinet post. ..so happy dance from MiM…

From WaPo piece on the grand jury last month:

A federal grand jury is investigating whether a financial firm improperly won more than $1.4 million in work for the state of New Mexico shortly after making contributions to political action committees of Gov. Bill Richardson (D).

The probe focuses on whether the governor’s office urged a state agency to hire CDR Financial Products. The probe is in a highly active stage at a time when President-elect Barack Obama has chosen Richardson as his nominee for secretary of commerce, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.

The grand jury in Albuquerque is expected to hear testimony today from several key witnesses, including officials at Richard’s political action committees and bankers at J.P. Morgan who worked with CDR on the state’s investments…

It was March 21st when this axx grabbing back stabber suddenly and without a call to Big Dawg and in fact dodging Big Dawgs calls, he came out for PEBO…round and round goes the karma…