Is it Richardson's time?

[thatsrightimirish]

This is not a cheer leading post for Bill Richardson, I remain undecided. And rightfully so this far out. But I would like to turn to some positives that he has.

Immigration is a big issue- Hispanic Governor of the Purple Border state of New Mexico

Gas prices- Former Energy Secretary

Foreign Policy- Former UN ambassador

Getting things dome in Washington- Former congressman

Talk about a profile. Of course, he must win his election in 06 but that won't be hard. But with the western states moving on earlier in the primary season, expect him to be a favorite.

[rucky]

1. He's facing a lobbying scandal right now.

also timely, but not in his favor.

[FrenchieCat]

2. Uhr.....NO, it isn't.....

Although he may be the "Great Hispanic Hope", I think that they are looking for someone without quite the baggage.

Original Reporting as told back then circa 1999-2000...

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0872860.html
Bill Richardson, energy secretary, lost virtually any chance to become Vice President Al Gore's running mate when two computer drives containing nuclear secrets were reported missing from the Los Alamos weapons laboratory in June. The drives were recovered behind a copy machine in a secure area of the lab. The incident is the second security breach in less than a year. Los Alamos nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee was arrested last year on security violations charges after he allegedly copied top-secret files onto an unsecure computer.

http://slate.msn.com/id/84864 /
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson
He schmoozes. He loses.

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/06/16/losalamos.disks/index.html
Missing nuclear secrets found behind Los Alamos copy machine

http://www.thebulletin.org/article.php?art_ofn=nd99gusterson
Los Alamos: A summer under siege

http://www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/light/20000628.htm
Layers to Los Alamos
Firing Richardson won't solve the problem. He would just be replaced by another secretary who would perch 50 layers from the front lines. Moreover, Richardson can hardly be blamed for layers that were created in previous waves of reform.

But Richardson should be held accountable for appointing the same people to hold posts in the new National Nuclear Security Administration and the old undersecretaryship for nuclear security. This "dual-hatting," as Richardson calls it, creates considerable confusion about just who has the authority to act.


http://www.quarterly-report.com/human_interest/wen_ho_lee.html
We ask today, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, have you no sense of decency?
In early March 1999, Bill Richardson was utterly paranoid to save his hide as a potential vice-presidential candidate to Al Gore. He needed a scapegoatHe found his sacrificial lamb in the diminutive, soft-soften Dr. Wen Ho Lee, a nuclear scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. What Richardson and the Clinton Administration subsequently engineered against Dr. Lee is an outrage.

A Summary of the Case

Dr. Lee was born in Taiwan and was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1974. His status as an Asian-American made him a perfect fall guy for alleged Chinese espionage at U.S. nuclear laboratories. In an orgy of self-protective lies, Richardson, aided by other corrupt executive branch officials, inexcusably branded Dr. Lee as a super spy to suppress the media damage arising from Richardson’s maladministration of the Energy Department. They accused the diminutive, soft-spoken Dr. Lee as "the one" who had passed nuclear secrets to the People’s Republic of China, in spite of the fact that Dr. Lee had passed his December 1998 Energy Department polygraph exam. 1/ The following chronology demonstrates how quickly Richardson acted to save his deluded vice-presidential aspirations in early 1999.

March 5: CBS News breaks the story of a soon-to-be-released
congressional report - The Cox Report -- on security
lapses and alleged Chinese spying at U.S. nuclear
facilities.

The FBI interrogates Dr. Lee.

March 6: The New York Times reports that an unnamed
Chinese-American scientist at Los Alamos is a suspect
in the FBI investigation.

March 7: The FBI gives Dr. Lee a polygraph examination.

March 8: Richardson directs the University of California to fire
Dr. Lee.
Aftermath - Richardson's Role in an Executive Branch Conspiracy

Richardson claimed that Dr. Lee was fired for failing to safeguard properly classified material among other charges. After Dr. Lee’s dismissal, Richardson said that the government "will not tolerate the theft of our secrets."

To dupe the American people into believing that the "FBI had got their man," the Clinton Administration upped the ante against Dr. Lee. On Saturday, December 4, 1999, in the White House Situation Room, Attorney General Reno, FBI Director Freeh, Richardson, and other top Clinton advisors decided to pursue criminal charges against Lee for mishandling nuclear secrets under the 1954 Atomic Energy Act. 2/

Six days later, a federal grand jury in Albuquerque returned 59 indictments against the sixty-year-old Dr. Lee, and the FBI arrested him on December 10. Then, Richardson, in concert with the Administration’s Gestapo justice department, levied the full weight of pre-trial sanctions on Dr. Lee.

It was Richardson who ordered that Dr. Lee be kept in solitary confinement. For 279 days, Dr. Lee was denied bail and was held in extraordinary harsh conditions -– leg shackles when outside his cell and solitary when he was there. He was continually monitored 24 hours a day. It took Richardson five months before he allowed Dr. Lee to have reading materials, longer exercise periods, and more frequency visits with his family.

On September 13, 2000, a plea agreement with the government was reached. Dr. Lee pled guilty to one count of downloading nuclear data to an unsecure computer. The remaining 58 charges were dismissed. 3/ Chief U.S. District Court Judge James A. Parker sentenced Dr. Lee to time already served and released him from prison. The government’s abrupt about face caused Judge Parker to react with amazement, incredulity, anger, regret, and sadness. 4/