Mr Richardson's Senate confirmation hearings were certain to attract penetrating questions about the financial contributions and tarnish Mr Obama's lofty commitment to maintain the highest ethical standards in his incoming administration.
Whenever these two come into conflict, Presidents inevitably find a way out of their loftier commitments.
"Such international get-togethers have ended with lofty statements and commitments which have not, sadly, been delivered or moved to implementation," said Mary chiefry-Hesse, chief adviser to President John Agyekum Kufuor of Ghana.
Given Americans' high self-regard in terms of their professed commitment to lofty moral standards, respecting the more visible dedication to the tenets of Islam in the Arab world should not be difficult to accept.
"I think goals are important, but they're only lofty rhetoric without the commitment of resources," said John F. Turner, the assistant secretary of state for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs.
Despite a lofty reputation and purported commitment to universal coverage, AMA has fought almost every major effort at health care reform of the past 70 years.
In the 1960's, perhaps the peak of her popularity among Western intellectuals, she represented the loftiest pinnacle of commitment to the struggle on behalf of the oppressed.
It began as a vague, lofty goal rather than a concrete commitment.
She is, however, no longer the best tennis player in the world (or her household), which is why tennis's chattering classes wonder whether Venus's continuing commitment to branching out might keep her from making the commitment to raise her game to the lofty level necessary to keep up with Serena.
Less ambitious commitments that are kept are preferable to lofty promises that are soon forgotten.
