Governor’s facial hair causes a fuss
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Bearded look compared to Wolfman Jack, Rod Steiger
3/24/2008 -
Just as New Mexicans are getting used to seeing Gov. Bill Richardson with a beard, the governor said Monday that he'll probably shave it off within the next two months."Initially the reaction to the beard was horrendous," said Richardson, who began sporting whiskers after he dropped out of the Democratic presidential race in January. "But more and more people are liking and accepting it. But my plan in a month or two is to get rid of it."
"I like it," he said, "but my wife still doesn't like it. That's the main factor."
Richardson's endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama's candidacy for president Friday brought the governor the most national media exposure he's had since January. And his return to the spotlight gave many around the country their first look at his new facial hair.
Comments about Richardson's altered appearance peppered political commentary through the weekend. As Radar magazine online noted, "not since Rutherford B. Hayes' scraggly chin mane has facial hair sent the fourth estate scurrying quite so excitedly."
On Sunday, appearing on NBC's Meet the Press, columnist and former Republican speechwriter Peggy Noonan was asked for her take on Richardson's Obama endorsement.
"I am struck by how, how with his beard, Bill Richardson looks like Rod Steiger in Dr. Zhivago," she began. "He has startled me. I was saying, 'That's not Bill Richardson. And who in the heck is that guy?' " (On a more serious note, Noonan said despite a widespread perception that former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton somehow control the Democratic Party, "When a Bill Richardson comes forward, it just reminds you, the Clintons may not be in charge.")
On CNN Friday, curmudgeonly commentator Jack Cafferty compared Richardson with a fabled border radio personality and Midnight Special television music host. Richardson should lose the beard, Cafferty said, because nobody takes you seriously when you look like Wolfman Jack.
Even before last week, however, some national publications had taken notice of the dark, trimmed beard.
"With facial hair, Bill Richardson looks a bit like a Klingon from the original Star Trek series," Matthew Yglesias wrote in The Atlantic last month.
"He has a beard and is deeply, deeply tanned," Mother Jones magazine noted in February. "He looks like a Bond villain."
Richardson, who has grown beards before but mostly stayed cleanshaven during his political career, laughed Monday when asked about some of the comparisons.
Referring to a remark on an ABC television interview last month, the governor said, "I think I like the Justin Timberlake reference by Diane Sawyer the best."
Gov. Bill Richardson
Hugo Drax, Bond villian Moonraker
Klingon warrior
Wolfman Jack
Rod Steiger in Doctor Zhivago
Rutherford B. Hayes