BREAKING NEWS: PETE "SNEAKY PETE" DOMENICI (R-NM) IS CALLING IT QUITS

We should listen to another rousing verse of Queen's "Another One Bites The Dust." This time it's New Mexico senile and crooked Senator Pete "Sneaky Pete" Domenici. Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post just broke the story that Sneaky will announce tomorrow that he's finally retiring.

Domenici has struggled with health problems over the last several years and has been dogged by questions about the role he may have played in the firing of U.S. Attorney David C. Iglesias in Albuquerque. As a result, he had been long been rumored as a potential retirement. He joins Republican Sens. John Warner (Va.), Chuck Hagel (Neb.) and Wayne Allard (Colo.) on the sidelines for 2008.

The most likely candidates on the Republican side are Reps. Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce. Several Democrats are mentioned including Rep. Tom Udall, Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish and former state Attorney General Patricia Madrid. The dream candidate for Democrats is Gov. Bill Richardson but his advisers insist he is not interested and focused on the 2008 presidential race. Wealthy businessman Don Wiviott is already in the race and has put several hundred thousand dollars of his own money into the bid.

What Cillizza doesn't mention is that Sneaky Pete's poll numbers show he can't win re-election and that an investigation of his interference in the Purge-Gate scandal is likely to wind up badly for him. His job approval rating is 43% and last year at this time no one under 50% won their re-election bids. Only 38% of women and only 34% on independents approve of Sneaky Pete's job performance. He may be losing his marbles but he still has someone around with enough sense to make him quit while he can still leave with a modicum of pseudo dignity.


AND I BET HE DIDN'T CARE SEEING THIS AD RUNNING IN ALBUQUERQUE AND ROSWELL

Maybe it can be used for Pearce or Wilson, a radical right kook and fake-moderate rubber stamp.




UPDATE: THE FALL-OUT IN NEW MEXICO

Adam Connor over at MyDD has a great outlook at what Domenici's retirement is likely to lead to-- an all Blue New Mexico. He and Jonathan Singer are working with locals on a Draft Udall campaign, the next domino after the long-overdue resignation.