"Hi, this is Bill Richardson. Leave a message for Joel . . ."

Joel Stein, the best Woody Allen-wannabe in the punditosphere, got a fundraising letter from Bill Richardson. This is odd, he thot, because Richardson is no longer running for president. So he did what any good sarcastic LA Times columnist with self-esteem issues a mile deep would do. He called him, and asked him what's up? Why are you asking for money if you're not in the race? Turns out it's something about leftover campaign debts. Too many mailings? Dry cleaners unhappy? Can't return the uneaten doughnuts? All that and a little more: his biggest bills are for charter jets. Ain't that always the thing. It's not a huge amount of money, as far as presidential campaigns go: $380,000. One problem is that, as governor of New Mexico, his options for joining the board of a private equity firm are limited, so he can't make the money himself.

Joel helped him out. First, by getting creative:

I suggested that he switch his Barack Obama endorsement to Hillary Clinton because she paid off candidate Tom Vilsack's debt, but he just laughed. "I don't think she'd be very interested in helping me right now," he said. He also shot down my other idea: Ask his new friend Obama for some sweat-soaked campaign clothes to auction on EBay.

So Joel offered him a deal, and Richardson took him up on it.

Impressed by his confidence, his integrity and this vague threat of being around "possibly nationally," I offered Richardson $20 if he'd record my outgoing answering machine message. He immediately agreed.

$20? And a column in the LA Times? That's it? That's all it takes? Hey, Bill, tell you what - I'll make the same offer. $20 to you, leave a message on my cell phone, and I'll write a blog post about it every day for a week. Let me know.