Word on the street is that the calls to Senator Pete Domenici's office in the wake of his break with the White House on the Iraq war are running at 70% against the switch, and many of those wo are supporting the switch are asking the Republican lawmaker's office for assurances that he will not just mouth a different opinion on Iraq, but actually vote that way. poll shows most voters are against the war, but Domenici's switch offended hard-core Republican war supporters the most, thus the negative phone calls.

JUDGING THE FOLEY JUDGE

Politics is often on the incestuous side in New Mexico's small towns and cities. And that seems to be the case in the upcoming trial of Roswell GOP State Representative Dan Foley. Judge Clyde McKee, slated to preside over Foley's trial on disorderly conduct and other charges stemming from a fight during his son's basketball game, has significant family ties to the volatile Foley and has even donated to one of Foley's campaigns, but still is not recusing himself from hearing the case. Can't it be moved, or a judge be imported into Chaves county to conduct the trial? It's Judge McKee's judgement that appears to need some judging.

The most explosive charge against Foley is that he spit on a cop while being arrested. It contradicts a conservative law and order image he has cultivated and. combined with other incidents of temper, opens the door to an '08 primary challenge. Will some Republican have the guts to step forward?

CANDIDATE 'MADNESS'

It will be another month or so before the candidates for four ABQ city council seats up for grabs in the October election are set in stone. The race in ABQ's SE Heights District Six to replace Martin Heinrich who is running for Congress is the most crowded, but it became a little less so this week. University professor Feroza Jussawalla gave this interesting withdrawal statement: "My momentary madness of running for City Council is over! It has something to do with the serenity prayer--wisdom to know what you can and cannot change etc.."

Madness is no stranger around here, but a candidate recognizing it in themselves is a new twist, but I wouldn't look for it to become a trend.

POWER PLAYERS: A LAST LOOK

It's been fun fielding the e-mail week in reaction to last Thursday's blog composed by an in-the-know Alligator listing his nominees for the top ten most powerful legislators in New Mexico since WWII. We wrap it up with this reminisce from veteran PNM lobbyist and the now retired, James "Bud" Mulcock.

"PNM's relationship with the Albuquerque Journal was tenuous to say the least. Mark Acuff, publisher of the NM Independent in the 1970's and 80's, had taken up our defense and was putting out pro-PNM publications. (A result of his antipathy toward the Journal, and not any great philosophical inclination he had to defend PNM). Anyhow, we decided that we would take out a year's subscription to the Independent for our 10-12,000 New Mexico shareholders.

The next year, Mark, completely unknown to us, decided to name the 10 WORST sitting Legislators. Well, you can imagine the hue and cry this caused and Legislators, especially those on the list, quickly charged that this was PNM's list and vowed revenge. But because the list was reasonably accurate and those named had little power, we survived that onslaught. Besides, 102 other Legislators were relieved they weren't on the list.

Moral of the story? Be careful when developing lists and don't expect any input from me.

Thanks Bud. Mark Acuff was a one-of-a-kind newspaperman who many of us only remember and who earned his entry into the never-ending book of La Politica.

(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2007
Not for reproduction without permission of the author