I’ve read this over and over and over again. I’ve read it to myself, and out loud. Those of you have called me an idiot and moron in past comments, might be right. Because, for the life of me, I can’t understand what Martin Heinrich is saying here (subscription):
Heinrich, a former Albuquerque city councilor, said he was paid principally by the Coalition for New Mexico Wilderness to lobby for the creation of the Ojito Wilderness northwest of Albuquerque. The federal legislation passed in 2005.
Federal law requires registration if a lobbyist receives more than $5,000 in a six month period from an organization, and spends more than 20 percent of his or her time on lobbying activities of the organization.
“There was never a time when I was paid that much to lobby anyone,” said Heinrich. “Now, I did other things that I was compensated for, but I never made that much money lobbying any entity, either state or federal.”
How can you say that you were “principally” paid to lobby, and also say that your compensation was for other things? You can’t, right? I mean, you can, but it doesn’t make any sense. This is just like that Patricia Madrid’s eight seconds of silence. All she had to do was answer the question honestly, and she would have in all likelihood been a member of Congress. I wouldn’t have liked it, but I’m just being honest here.
Likewise, all Martin Heinrich had to do was to admit that he screwed up and pay the $50,000 fine, and this would have been water under the bridge. We already know from his failure to get a business license that following government regulations forced on everyone else is not one of his strong suits.
Of course, there is an ironic twist to all of this. During the Democratic Primary, Martin Heinrich made a point of calling for a federal investigation (subscription) of one of his opponents for failure to follow the letter of the law:
Martin Heinrich, running in a four-way Democratic primary race for the 1st Congressional District seat, will ask for a federal investigation into opponent Robert Pidcock’s campaign financing because Pidcock did not report loans to his campaign in the time frame required by law.
But, this is the kicker…
Jon Blair, who is managing Heinrich’s campaign, said Heinrich would file a complaint that could result in fines to Pidcock’s campaign if he is found to have violated the law.
“He’s not abiding by the law that every candidate in the country manages to abide by,” Blair said.
I guess it takes one to know one.