Rattner Investigation Snares Bill Richardson?

This just keeps getting better and better. Steve Rattner, who was chosen by President Obama to become the car czar to fix the auto industry, is a fixer whose motives appear driven by pay to play. That's gotten him into hot water in New York as his name has repeatedly come up in investigations in to the NYS pension system when run by disgraced comptroller Alan Hevesi, but it now appears that New Mexico governor Bill Richardson may have crossed the line as well.

Richardson had been expected to be Obama's Commerce Secretary before taking his name out of consideration because of a New Mexico grand jury investigation into whether an adviser won work on state bond deals because of campaign donations.

So, where's the connection between Rattner and Richardson? Let's play follow the money:

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's campaigns and political-action committees received at least $102,300 from brokers hired by money managers seeking to handle $11.7 billion of state trust funds, campaign-finance records show.

In addition to those donations, Richardson, a Democrat who ran for president in 2008, received at least $95,000 from the state trusts' outside money managers.

That cash included $20,000 from Quadrangle Group LLC founder Steven Rattner and $50,381 from Leo Hindery, founder of InterMedia Advisors LLC, according to New Mexico and federal campaign-finance records.

Rattner, who directs the Obama administration's auto-industry task force, and Hindery have donated $3.8 million to Democratic candidates and political-action committees, compared with $110,200 to Republicans.

"There's an appearance of pay-to-play," said Steven Robert Allen, executive director of Common Cause New Mexico, a public-interest organization.

Thus far, Rattner has not been indicted, but I don't expect that to last very long. Richardson's troubles are far from over, given that this is just the latest in a string of events that go to Richardson's penchant for pay to play:

If it weren’t for the allegations against Morris in New York, this might be just another example of a Richardson donor who won a state contract. But the man in the middle is facing allegations that he took kickbacks in exchange for steering billions of dollars in New York retirement-fund investments to paying companies.

State government in New Mexico has been plagued by pay-to-play allegations in recent years. And Richardson is currently dogged by such allegations in his own administration — which, in the federal grand jury investigation and the separate lawsuit brought by Frank Foy, have to do with state investments. The first, a criminal probe, is what tanked Richardson’s nomination to be Obama’s commerce secretary.

It’s important to note that Rattner and Quadrangle have not been accused of wrongdoing in New York or New Mexico, and Morris has been accused of no wrongdoing in New Mexico. Quadrangle is reportedly cooperating with investigators in the New York case.

I think the operative word for the moment is yet. Rattner and Quadrangle haven't been accused of wrongdoing yet in New York or New Mexico and Morris has yet to be accused of wrongdoing in New Mexico.

Returning to the NYS investigation, there's word that investigators are looking at several Israeli firms because of possible kickbacks between the firms and Hank Morris, another close ally to Hevesi.

The more people look, the bigger this scandal appears to grow.

It also continues to call into question the judgment of President Obama, who thought that both Richardson and Rattner would be suitable advisers and members of his Cabinet. Instead, both are looking like they should be fitted for prison jumpsuits.

UPDATE:
Bob "The Torch" Torricelli of New Jersey was also questioned by investigators into the actions relating to the NYS pension fund chicanery.