Bruce King, 85, a former governor of New Mexico, was a back-slapping, hand-pumping, old-fashioned politician, equally at home on the ranch or in the roundhouse.
King was with family members at his ranch in Stanley, N.M., when he died Friday morning, less than a year after the death of his wife of 61 years, Alice.
King served 12 years as governor in separate terms that spanned three decades. Former President Bill Clinton, a friend for 30 years, said King used a homespun manner to demonstrate a razor-sharp mind and an amazing wit.
King’s political career covered 40 years. Before being elected governor in 1970, 1978 and 1990, he was a lawmaker and county commissioner.
When he retired in 1994, New Mexico’s political landscape had changed. The importance of political bosses had dwindled. The notion that you had to start at the bottom of the political ladder had been tossed aside. It was all about campaign consultants, big bucks and televised sound bites — something King never quite mastered.
James R. Lilley, 81, a longtime CIA operative and later the U.S. ambassador to China during the time of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, has died.
The Washington Post said Lilley, who was born in China to an oilman father and schoolteacher mother, died Thursday in Washington from complications related to prostate cancer.
Lilley had a close relationship with former President George H.W. Bush dating to the early 1970s, when Lilley headed the CIA’s operations in Beijing and Bush was the chief of the U.S. mission there. During the 1989 Tiananmen protests, Lilley, a stern critic of the crackdown, often sent his reports about the unfolding events directly to Bush, who was then president.
Lilley, who earlier served as the ambassador to South Korea, was the ambassador to China from 1989 to 1991.
