Herrera will surrender the letter, but not before making herself look even worse.

Secretary of State Mary Herrera wants to bury the letter of resignation that included a host of allegations of ethical misconduct in her Office.

Attorney General Gary King says it's a public record, link.

But, according to good ol' boy logic, "any day you don't lose, you win", so Herrera will hold out until she has no choice. Perhaps, before the letter is torn from her hands, some other member of the Richardson administration will step in a deeper pile of crap, and the attention will be drawn away from her, so she can pursue her refusal to surrender the records in court, a process that she could drag on forever.

The part of the logic she missed, was the part where you have to keep what you are doing hidden while you wait for the news cycle to subside. She was not able, and will not be able, to keep the story under wraps.

In fact, the story has now morphed into a story about how she is playing games with public records law, and she is doing it in plain sight.

Terrell found the money quote for us, it comes from Deputy Secretary of State Francisco Trujillo who said,

"... it wasn't only Salazar whom he was trying to protect by not releasing the letter but other employees mentioned in the letter."

Wow, on a couple of issues;

• does anyone really believe Trujillo when he says he is trying to protect Salazar, the guy who just outed his boss? And
• those "other employees" he is trying to "protect", does the Deputy Secretary of State know so little about public records law that he really believes he can redact an entire document and not just the names of those his is trying to protect?

The more they talk, the worse they look.

Keep talking guys.