ONE LAST FAVOR PART 2

I'm not the only one who had some fun with Gov. Bill Richardson's most recent plea for money to pay off his campaign debts.

And I'm not even the first one to refer to Nigerian e-mail scams when talking about Richardson's post-candidacy fund-raising.

Columnist Joel Stein of the Los Angeles Times today published this must-read.

This was the most shameless request for money I'd ever gotten from someone not living in Nigeria. Richardson was asking me for money not so that my interests would be reflected during his presidency, but just because he's a good guy in a spot of bother. If this works, I might be getting e-mails for the rest of my life from Richardson. "It's Bill again. Bad run at the blackjack table, but I'm pretty sure I can get out of it :)"

What's really funny though is that Stein actually got Richardson on the phone. Although local journalists usually get to talk directly to Richardson only if they can catch him coming out of the Capitol tv studio after appearing on CNN or Fox News, those from national news organizations never seem to have trouble reaching him.