From Drudge (via MSNBC.com and FreeRepublic.com — here as well; MSNBC video from hotair.com), in what might be construed as the first political fallout of US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s 90-day extension request for indicting Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich:

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson [a Democrat], tapped in December by President-elect Barack Obama to serve as secretary of Commerce, has withdrawn his name for the position, citing a pending investigation into a company that has done business with his state.

“Let me say unequivocally that I and my Administration have acted properly in all matters and that this investigation will bear out that fact,” he said Sunday in a report by NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell. “But I have concluded that the ongoing investigation also would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process.” He said he plans to continue in his role as governor. …

Obama on Sunday gave no indication whom he might name to replace Richardson as the nominee but said “we must move quickly to fill the void left by Governor Richardson’s decision.”

Further, Yahoo! News has an article where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)  cites “legal authority” as justification for barring senatorial appointee Roland Burris from being seated…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Sunday that “legal authority” exists under the Constitution to bar embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s pick to fill President-elect Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat, but added there is also room to negotiate.

Under the Constitution, Reid said, “We determine who sits in the Senate. And the House (of Representatives) determines who sits in the House. So there’s clearly legal authority for us to do whatever we want to do. This goes back for generations.”

Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Reid said he plans to meet on Wednesday with Blagojevich’s choice for the Senate, Roland Burris, 71, the former Illinois attorney general, a fellow Democrat.

Asked if there was room for a possible settlement, Reid said, “I’m an old trial lawyer. There is always room to negotiate.”

New members will be sworn in on Tuesday with the opening of the new Congress.

Reid called Burris a “tainted appointment” because of the governor’s alleged misconduct, although he said he did not know of anything wrong with Burris himself. …

Asked if Burris will become a U.S. senator, Reid said, “It will be very difficult for that to occur.” But he added, “Anything can happen.”

According to the Politico, all of this certainly puts the Senate Democratic caucus in a tight spot:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has made clear that he won’t swear in Roland Burris, the 71-year-old former state comptroller and attorney general who was appointed to the Senate by Blagojevich  last week. But Democratic Senate aides are tamping down the idea that Burris would be physically blocked by Capitol Police when the Senate is gaveled into session Tuesday. Burris has said that he will leave upon being denied entry to the Senate chamber. 

But Reid’s office isn’t backing down on its plan to not seat Burris — and top advisers to Burris are suggesting that Reid doesn’t want an African-American to succeed Obama. 

“It’s interesting that all those who are viable are white women and the ones who are unacceptable are black men,” Prince Riley, a senior consultant to Burris, told Politico. 

Riley was alluding to a Chicago Sun-Times story Saturday indicating that Reid called Blagojevich on Dec. 3, shortly before the governor was arrested on corruption charges, including the allegation that he’d tried to sell Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder. …

Reid’s aides wouldn’t say so, but the Senate leader’s concern over the three Chicago-based African-Americans seems centered on whether they could win statewide reelection in 2010. 

For now, Manley said, Reid is “looking for ways to diffuse the situation” — a recognition that there’s little political upside to blocking a qualified, scandal-free (except by association with Blagojevich) African-American from a Senate that, with Obama gone, now has no black members. 

Update: RedState.com shows how Harry Reid appears to — as Gov. Sarah Palin would say — not “be completely truthful” on this issue:

Alas, Reid was the lone guest on NBC’s Meet the Press [transcript], and moderator David Gregory was not shy about the questions he asked. But I had to uncover the most brazen lie myself.

Gregory asked Reid about charges reported at Politico.com this morning that he had called Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to make known that he would not accept Representative Jesse Jackson Jr., Representative Danny Davis, or Illinois Senate President Emil Jones to fill the vacant Obama seat. Those men are all black. Instead, Reid asked for either Illinois Veterans Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth, a Thai-American, or Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who is white.

Reid countered:

I have–anyone that suggests there’s any racial bias in this instance doesn’t realize I went to the Clark County district attorney’s office to find a nobody— people thought was a nobody – to become a federal judge, Johnnie Rawlinson. She was a great judge. She’s now on the Ninth Circuit. I did that myself. So anyone to suggest anything racial is part of the Blagojevich spin to take away from the corruption that’s involved his office in Illinois.

Harry Reid is still a liar.

According to Reid’s hometown Las Vegas Review-Journal, that “nobody” African American woman was not Reid’s first choice for that judgeship (U.S. District Court for Nevada). His actual first choice was U.S. Attorney Kathryn Landreth, a white woman, who asked that her name be withdrawn so she could do other things.

Harry Reid did not boldly march down to a district attorney’s office and select an African American with no reputation to be a federal judge because he felt it was the noble and just thing to do; rather, Rawlinson’s name came up after Reid’s first choice turned him down.

Update: And now we have this:

It looks as if Barack Obama and his transition team know how badly Bill Richardson’s resignation reflects on them.  They have started leaking to the press that Richardson’s to blame for the embarrassing spectacle this afternoon of his withdrawal as a Cabinet nominee.  Jake Tapper has the details:

Sources tell ABC News that officials on the Obama Transition Team feel that before he was formally offered the job of commerce secretary, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was not forthcoming with them about the federal investigation that is looking into whether the governor steered a state contract towards a major financial contributor.

Once the investigation became more widely known through national media reports last month, sources tell ABC News, the Obama Transition Team realized the FBI would not be able to give Richardson a clean political bill of health before the new administration is ready to send his nomination up to the Senate for confirmation.

Meanwhile, Richardson and his team has to defend themselves:

The Richardson camp says the governor was forthcoming, with sources close to the governor noting that there had been reports about the controversy in local media such as the Albuquerque Journal as far back as August 2008. The governor discussed the investigation with the Obama team, they say, and believes that he and his administration have done nothing wrong.

-Phil