Sen. Pete “I have no idea what he’s talking about” Domenici (R-NM) has had an epiphany and now does have an idea what canned U.S. Attorney David Iglesias was talking about when he said Domenici called him about a high-profile public corruption case in New Mexico shortly before the mid-term elections.
Oh, THAT call.
Well, sure, I called him, Domenici said in statement released to home state media Saturday, but I never told him what course of action I thought he should take, or pressured him, or threatened him in any way. Nonetheless, hindsight being 20/20, I regret making that call. And even though I didn’t threaten, pressure, cajole, suggest, hint, wink, or nod, I apologize.
I was waiting for him to say that he’s just some old guy who wanders Capitol Hill in his pajamas. Who would take that guy seriously?
Well, when a U.S. Senator–a senior Senator from your own party, no less–calls you about a case, you can be damn sure it’s not a social call. Here’s what Domenici says transpired on the call:
I asked Mr. Iglesias if he could tell me what was going on in that investigation and give me an idea of what timeframe we were looking at. It was a very brief conversation, which concluded when I was told that the courthouse investigation would be continuing for a lengthy period.
What timeframe “we” were looking at? The royal “we.” It’s just us Republicans here, old boy. Notice too that Domenici’s version of events doesn’t preclude him having abruptly hung up the phone, as Iglesias claims.
But Domenici knows he screwed up. Otherwise, what’s to apologize for? Maybe with a mea culpa, I’m sure the thinking goes, he can put this behind him and move quickly on. Nice touch, that written statement. No follow-up questions. No need to provide a timeline. May get the local reporters off his back for a while.
So many question remain. Here’s one: Did the good senator ever have any discussions with Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) about their calls to Iglesias?
