No need to outsmart ourselves here. Richardson says things like this because he's running for president. Presidential campaigns do not proceed according to high intellectual standards. We learn nothing by trying to divine Hillary Clinton's, let alone Richardson's, judicial philosophy. A Democratic president will pick SCOTUS nominees from the pool of Democratic (or, conceivably, liberal Republican) judges approved by the vast anti-cultural apparatus: ACLU, NARAL, NOW, People for the American Way, and the NAACP. That is, he or she will appoint a hard-left judicial activist in the mold of Ginsburg or (at best) Souter. Who cares if a candidate claims to like Justice White? That's a sideshow if I've ever seen one.

This item from today's Albuquerque Journal:

"Richardson Watch"

FUMBLE: Richardson said during a weekend campaign trip to California that he made a mistake when he named the late Supreme Court Justice Byron "Whizzer" White as his favorite justice. The gov picked White in response to a question during the April 26 Democratic presidential debate in South Carolina. The Associate Press reports that Richardson -- who supports abortion Rights -- said he didn't remember that White dissented in the landmark Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion in 1973. Richardson said he had named White because he had been appointed by President Kennedy and was an All-American football player.