Petition Against Bill Richardson

Please sign this petition against President-elect Obama's nomination of Gov. Bill Richardson to be his Secretary of Commerce. Even though the nomination is now official, we want to continue to collect signatures showing our opposition. Thank you.

http://www.petitiononline.com/GovBillR/petition.html

Bill Richardson summarily fired WHL without due process, ruining Lee's career and reputation and is widely believed to be responsible for leaking WHL's name to the press. Congressional Records state that his Energy Department requested solitary confinement and shackling of WHL, something Amnesty International called "unnecessarily punitive and contravene international human rights standards". Judge Parker specifically named the Department of Energy for misleading him in his open court apology to Wen Ho Lee. These three articles clearly show Dr. Lee was innocent and that he was singled out because of his Chinese ethnicity:

▸ Jude Wanniski memo to Bob Novak, Aug 9, 1999, Recapping the China Spy Story
▸ Bob Drogin, Sep 13, 2000, How FBI's Flawed Case Against Lee Unraveled
▸ Robert Scheer, Oct 23, 2000, How the NY Times convicted WHL

Here are more reasons why Gov. Richardson should not be confirmed by the Senate, besides his bungling of the Wen Ho Lee case.

▸ Pay for play investigation (Pay for play)
▸ Sexually harassed his Lt. Gov. (sexual harassment)
▸ Disloyal (Judas, quid pro quo)
▸ Lied to Congress and lied on his resume (lies)
▸ Will never be confirmed by the Senate (Sen. Byrd, confirmation chance)
▸ No ethics (situation ethics, self-promotional hack)
▸ Poor judgment (poor judgment)
▸ Give illegal immigrants amnesty and driver's licenses (immigration)

Mallard Fillmore/Bruce Tinsley

Cartoon from December 23, 2008. Does Mr. Tinsley think Gov. Richardson traded a promised appointment with then Sen. Obama for his support over Sen. Clinton during the primary? After all, President Clinton appointed Bill Richardson UN ambassador to the United Nation followed by Secretary of Energy.

WHL and Chancellor Tien

http://www.asianweek.com/2008/12/28/letters-to-the-editor-wen-ho-lee-and-chancellor-tien-healing-victims-of-trauma/
The Wen Ho Lee case, taking place between 1999 and 2000, did not affect Chancellor Tien’s chance of being appointed secretary of energy by Clinton (“A Nobel Laureate in the White House,” Dec. 19). Instead, it was John Huang and the 1996 campaign finance scandal that torpedoed Tien’s chance. Bill Richardson was appointed secretary of energy in 1998 and he, among other officials, was the one responsible for the prosecution and persecution of Dr. Wen Ho Lee.

L. Ling-Chi Wang
Professor Emeritus, Asian American Studies,
UC Berkeley
San Francisco, Calif.,
Dec. 19

Petition Is Not Racial

http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=b41d133bd12d7bf17afb688747904dda&from=rss
New America Media, News Analysis, Jun Wang, Posted: Dec 17, 2008

Editor’s Note: President-elect Barack Obama’s nomination of Bill Richardson as Secretary of Commerce sparked a wave of protest in the Chinese American community, because of Richardson’s connection with the Wen Ho Lee case – but Chinese American media denies that their cause has anything to do with anti-Latino sentiment. Jun Wang is an editor with New America Media.

This Monday, President-elect Barack Obama officially nominated Nobel Prize winner Steven Chu to be U.S. Energy Secretary. Chinese American media reports that, to some extent, this nomination makes up for the Wen Ho Lee debacle, when Chinese American scientist Lee was wrongly accused of espionage and imprisoned for nine months.

But Chinese Americans continue to circulate a petition – initiated by Chinese scholars and human rights activists – against the appointment of Bill Richardson as Secretary of Commerce because he was involved in Lee’s persecution, and are outraged over what they call “misleading, racial” coverage by mainstream media about this issue.

On December 2nd, the San Jose Mercury News published a story with the headline "Chinese American Activists Oppose Any Bill Richardson Cabinet Nomination," reporting that the petition is "bound to create political tension between Latinos and Asian Americans."

The article also states: "Chinese Americans say they realize that challenging the nomination of Richardson, 61, the nation's most high-profile Hispanic politician will ruffle the Latino community, many of whose leaders felt he should have been named secretary of state instead of Sen. Hillary Clinton."

The Sing Tao Daily, one of the leading Chinese-language newspapers in the United States, published an editorial on Dec. 3rd calling the San Jose Mercury News' reporting on the petition biased.

For Chinese Americans, the rift created by Lee’s case is still not completely healed, especially when it comes to Richardson. Former President Bill Clinton, Judge James Parker and mainstream newspapers – including the New York Times – have apologized to Lee since the incident. Yet Richardson – the U.S. Secretary of Energy during the Clinton Administration, and seen as responsible for the witch hunt that brought Lee down, has refused to apologize or voice his regrets.

The Sing Tao editorial argues that coverage of Chinese American protests has falsely portrayed this as a racial issue. "The Mercury News called the protests a ‘potential racial conflict,’ which is not only misleading, but also provokes racial conflict itself."


The San Jose Mercury News did not respond to requests for comment.

Yu-ru Chen, editor-in-chief of the World Journal, another prominent U.S. Chinese-language newspaper, agrees that the petition is a human rights issue, and does not pose a threat to relations between ethnic communities. Chen said to cover the issue from a potential racial conflict angle reveals "hidden motives" aimed at undermining the union among ethnic communities.

The World Journal was the first newspaper to support the petition challenging Richardson's nomination, according to Chen.

The Chinese community acknowledges Richardson's service and contribution to the country, Chen says. However, Chen says, Richardson's response to the Lee case has been inappropriate and unjust. 



"The petition has only been signed by Chinese Americans so far, but what if people in China join?" he asks. "Won't it be an embarrassment to the United States, which has long been a human rights leader in the world?"

Chinese media based in California expect senators to question the nomination based on human rights considerations. As Commerce Secretary, especially in the current global economic crisis, Richardson will have to deal with China, one of the United States' most important partners. With the Chinese community around the world calling on Richardson to apologize for his role in the Lee case, Chen believes that Richardson will have no choice but to address the issue.

In Chinese philosophy, crisis and opportunity are two sides of the same coin. "If [Richardson] positively responds to the Wen Ho Lee case, the current crisis could turn into an opportunity for him," Chen says. “However, if Richardson doesn't handle the issue well, more tough issues will be waiting for him when he takes his position as Commerce Secretary.”

"It's true that Richardson is of Latino descent and those who are protesting (his appointment) are Chinese. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's a racial conflict," Sing Tao Daily editors write in the editorial. "Can't the Chinese community voice their opinion about a national issue other than for racial reasons? Is it necessary to see everything (related to the Chinese community) through a racial lens?"

"Actually Chinese and Latinos have the same standing point," Chen says. "We're all struggling to be treated equally by mainstream society. If the human rights of someone from the Latino community gets violated, we (Chinese) will stand up for him or her."

Covering the petition from a racial conflict perspective is equivalent to breaking apart a united country, Chen says. "How they deal with the petition based on the Wen Ho Lee issue is not only a test of Bill Richardson, but also a test of our character as U.S. citizens."

Related Articles:

Steven Chu—Smart Policy, Not Politics

Push for Diversity in an Obama Administration

China Spies And The Wen Ho Lee Hangover

What We Have (Not) Learned from Wen Ho Lee

The Price of Wen Ho Lee

http://www.asianweek.com/2008/12/17/the-price-for-wen-ho-lee/
President-elect Obama has designated two APA cabinet members: retired Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki for Veterans Affairs and Cal’s Nobel Prize winner Steven Chu for Energy, which is a makeup for President Clinton getting cold feet over U.C. Berkeley Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien after the “Chinagate” witch hunt. But Obama’s selection of Bill Richardson for Commerce raises hackles over the New Mexico governor’s unrepentant role in the espionage prosecution of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee, who won a $1.6 million civil settlement from the feds and five major national media outlets in 2006. The Richardson selection is symptomatic of the Obama transition team’s vetting process. While sensitive to Latino political influence (note the expected pick of Colorado Senator Ken Salazar for Interior), the team is downplaying APA anger over Richardson’s handling of the Lee case. Petitions are nearing 10,000 in opposition to his appointment at wenholee.org. However, Obama is already committed to Richardson and is unlikely to risk embarrassment by pulling his name or having Congress reject the nomination. Richardson could defuse the issue at his Senate confirmation hearing by publicly apologizing and pledging to elevate APAs into major management positions to avert future Wen Ho Lees…

Grand Jury Investigates Contributions to Richardson

The FBI has been investigating Gov. Richardson since August, see additional links at
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-richardson17-2008dec17,0,4246219.story
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/19/us/politics/19richardson.html

Asked whether the probe focused only on CDR's actions in securing or executing the contract, the person with knowledge of the investigation said, "It is more than that."

Also read the comments at http://www.topix.net/forum/source/krqe/TN9DGK1CH1O359SAR and http://www.topix.net/forum/source/santa-fe-new-mexican/T1MEBC8F557QJ9NR4. One of them wrote, "Trust me, as I have some information on this. It was not a No Bid Contract. They issued an RFP for the work. The company wasn't going to be the top pick for the RFP. Then they made a donation to the Gov. 4 days later, they had the contract."

Gov. Richardson ducked a reporter's question from KRQE TV and when the station reported that, the Governor's deputy chief of staff, Gilbert Gallegos, had the nerve to send an email accusing the reporter of misconduct. You can watch the news clip and read the email exchange between Gallegos and the TV station at http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/politics/politics_krqe_santa_fe_gallegos_complaint_200812171333. Michael Herzenberg from KRQE also reported that "One contribution reportedly was made just after CDR got the first deal. The other donation was made four days before it got the second job."

In a KOAT TV article, http://www.koat.com/news/18313553/detail.html, titled, "Donor Probe Could Impact Richardson's Confirmation Process", it says, "Calls to the Obama transition team for a comment on the grand jury probe were not returned."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/15/AR2008121502940.html
By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 16, 2008; Page A04

A federal grand jury is investigating whether a financial firm improperly won more than $1.4 million in work for the state of New Mexico shortly after making contributions to political action committees of Gov. Bill Richardson (D).

The probe focuses on whether the governor's office urged a state agency to hire CDR Financial Products. The probe is in a highly active stage at a time when President-elect Barack Obama has chosen Richardson as his nominee for secretary of commerce, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.

The grand jury in Albuquerque is expected to hear testimony today from several key witnesses, including officials at Richard's political action committees and bankers at J.P. Morgan who worked with CDR on the state's investments.

The inquiry is part of a long-running nationwide investigation into "pay-to-play" practices in local government bond markets. In other cities, federal investigators are questioning whether financial firms have lavished politicians with money and gifts in exchange for fee-paying work advising municipal and local governments on investments. Authorities indicted the mayor of Birmingham, Ala., this month on charges of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts and loans from a firm that led the city into toxic investments and massive bankruptcy.

In the New Mexico case, the FBI and federal prosecutors are investigating how CDR, based in Beverly Hills, Calif., won lucrative fees from the New Mexico Finance Authority in 2004 soon after donating $100,000 to two Richardson organizations.

From 2003 to 2004, CDR Financial gave $75,000 to Sí Se Puede, which paid for expenses at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. CDR's president and founder, David Rubin, also gave $25,000 to Moving America Forward, which funded Richardson's efforts to register Hispanic and American Indian voters.

Rubin was generous to Obama's campaign as well, giving $29,000 to help elect the senator to the White House. Yesterday, the Obama transition office declined to comment on the development.

Gilbert Gallegos, a spokesman for Richardson, said the governor was "aware of questions surrounding some financial transactions at the New Mexico Finance Authority" and expected state officials to cooperate fully. Gallegos declined further comment.

The U.S. attorney's office in New Mexico also declined to comment on the investigation, which began in the summer. Several Finance Authority board members have publicly confirmed being interviewed by the FBI. Paul Kennedy, an attorney for Richardson's former chief of staff, David Harris, confirmed that his client had been interviewed by the FBI in the summer but declined to comment further.

CDR's attorney, Richard Beckler, declined to answer questions about the probe's focus.

"CDR has always tried to abide by these byzantine campaign finance regulations and is cooperating fully with this investigation," Beckler said in a telephone interview yesterday.

CDR made $1.48 million advising the authority on interest-rate swaps and refinancing of funds related to $1.6 billion in transportation bonds issued by the agency, state officials confirmed. Interest-rate swaps are financial contracts based on the value of commodities, loans or other assets, and debtors sometimes use them to lower borrowing costs. But many swaps have recently proven unwise as the assets upon which they were based plummeted in value.

The state hired CDR after requesting proposals for a bond adviser on Dec. 30, 2003. Sources familiar with the investigation said CDR initially did not make the list of the top three bidders. But the authority committee considering the bids redid the selection process and split some work, eventually hiring CDR for a part.

Committee Chairman Rick Homans was Richardson's economic development secretary at the time. He is now Richardson's taxation and revenue secretary and has declined to comment.

Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.

WHL case will forever haunt Richardson

http://www.asianweek.com/2008/12/14/letters-to-the-editor-richardson-and-wen-ho-lee-michael-wong-responds-oppression-nothing-new/#more-9972
Richardson and Wen Ho Lee
The Wen Ho Lee case will forever haunt Richardson (Emil Amok, Dec. 5).

China is one of America’s biggest trading partners and creditors. Richardson, if confirmed, would have a very difficult time dealing with the Chinese, as they all remember the inhumane, cruel and unusual treatment Dr. Lee received while incarcerated. The Obama administration needs to reassess this nomination.

Guy M. Wong
Sacramento, Calif., Dec. 6

To me the whole issue is not about race but about the person who did not have courage to apologize for his mistake (“Commerce Secretary Appointment Draws Ire From Asian Americans,” Nov. 28). What happened to Dr. Lee has also happened to people of other races: whites, Hispanics, blacks. My concern about Richardson is that he misses very important traits of a leader. Have courage to apologize when you made a mistake.

Anand Shaw
Sunnyvale, Calif., Dec. 9]

Robert Vrooman's Statement

Governor Bill Richardson is a poor choice for Secretary of Commerce or, for that matter, any position in the Obama Administration. President-elect Obama has stated many times that he wants people in his administration who are willing to tell him things that he does not want to hear. This is not the way Governor Richardson operates. I have personal experience with Bill Richardson when he was Secretary of Energy. I opposed his decision to railroad Dr. Wen Ho Lee on bogus espionage charges. Secretary Richardson was not willing to listen to minority opinions on Dr. Lee, and he punished me and others who defended Dr. Lee. We were proven correct when the government settled with Lee for $1.6 million.

The Chinese-American community has correctly claimed that Dr. Lee was identified as an espionage suspect because of his race. I know more about this subject than any other person in the US and agree with this assessment. This is not, however, Bill Richardson’s real problem. Secretary Richardson made three mistakes that raise serious questions about his judgment and character. First, because of political pressure, he refused to listen to minority opinions on Lee. Secondly, even after it was abundantly clear that Lee was not guilty, Secretary Richardson supported pursuing the prosecution. Finally, Secretary Richardson has never apologized to the people that he punished for “not aggressively pursuing Wen Ho Lee.”

Selecting Governor Richardson to serve in the Obama Administration is not “change we can believe in.”
______
Dr. Robert Vrooman was the counterintelligence director at Los Alamos National Laboratory who fiercely objected WHL's arrest. Vrooman himself was reprimanded by Bill Richardson for continuing to oppose the charges and actions against WHL. He supported the campaign to free WHL through many speeches and the media.

See Vrooman's declaration at http://nobillrichardson.blogspot.com/2008/12/investigation-and-treatment-of-whl.html. His declaration stated he believes "the failure to look at the rest of the population is because Lee is ethnic Chinese."

Poll on Richardson

Please click on the link below and vote on this Richardson poll
http://news.aol.com/main/obama-presidency/article/richardson-to-be-commerce-secretary/257746

Remember Richardson's sorry role in Wen Ho Lee case

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/08/ED1G14IQH0.DTL
George Koo
Monday, December 8, 2008
Many, including Bill Richardson himself, are probably wondering why anyone would object to him serving in the Obama administration. They surely have forgotten the Wen Ho Lee case and Richardson's role in one of America's most disgraceful cases of miscarriage of justice.

The objection to his nomination as President-elect Barack Obama's secretary of commerce arose from the fact that Richardson, while serving as Clinton's energy secretary, never owned up to his responsibility in the case of the United States vs. Wen Ho Lee. Until he does, he cannot be allowed to forget.

The organized opposition to the appointment originated in the Bay Area and, as of last week, had more than 4,000 signatories to a petition asking Obama to reconsider Richardson's nomination.

In March 1999, as secretary of energy, Richardson fired Wen Ho Lee without cause from his job as an atomic scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and falsely identified him as a spy for China, which led to Lee's arrest and solitary confinement without the benefit of due process.

Even after the FBI apologized for lying under oath, and the presiding judge apologized to Lee for the arrest on behalf of the federal government for judiciary misconduct, Richardson has continued to defend his actions in the case as proper.

He justifies his conduct by pointing out that Lee is a now a convicted felon, conveniently overlooking that 58 of the original 59 counts of the indictment were thrown out by the court.

The final count was a face-saving way out for the government. Federal prosecutors had Lee plead guilty on a count of downloading information to his computer against laboratory regulations in exchange for the nine months of jail time already served. Because no individual can withstand indefinitely the full legal weight of his own government, Lee copped a plea despite the injustice of the circumstances.

Richardson's actions legitimized racial profiling as practiced then, and now, by the law enforcement agencies. To this day, the FBI continues to assert that ethnic Chinese are potential spies for China.

Those of us protesting Richardson's appointment are asking him to disavow racial profiling as an accepted practice. He should do this, and he can do so by simply admitting he made an error in judgment, and in no way condones racial profiling.

The protest has nothing to do with Richardson becoming the highest ranking Latino appointee in the Obama administration. We applaud the appointment of the most talented and able men and women, regardless of ethnicity, to serve our country.

However, so long as the Wen Ho Lee case is a blot on Richardson's record, we challenge the notion that he is among the most qualified to serve.

Perhaps the Obama transition team is unaware of Richardson's baggage. It is our duty to call this matter to its attention.

As the first African American president-elect, Obama has electrified the world. However, if Richardson's confirmation is not preceded by a public apology, the act would only confirm that politics as usual prevail.

Richardson's 2nd Least Likely to be Confirmed

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/12/the_friday_line_ranking_the_ca.html
The Friday Line: Ranking the Cabinet Confirmation Prospects

With President-elect Barack Obama having filled roughly half of his 15 Cabinet appointments by the end of this week, we thought now would be a good time to take a closer look at the confirmation prospects for each of the seven Cabinet members already chosen.

In truth, most of the soon-to-be president's picks are likely to be approved by the Senate barring some sort of glaring problem (see Baird, Zoe) with their backgrounds. Historically the pattern has been that the Senate generally defers to the president on his picks for the Cabinet but, according to the Post's indispensable Al Kamen, there always seems to be one person -- Linda Chavez, Baird, John Tower -- who doesn't make it through the confirmation process.

Who is this Administration's Tower/Baird/Chavez? We won't hazard a guess and, remember, that with eight Cabinet officials still not named, the nominee most likely to go down in flames may not even be known yet.

Below you'll find our rankings of the squirm factor for the seven men and women Obama has selected to fill Cabinet jobs in his Administration. The number one ranked person is the one likely to squirm the most under questioning from the Senate. To be clear, all seven of these people seem likely to be confirmed today but some of them will cruise to confirmation while others will stumble to it.

As always, the Line is meant to spark conversation so use the comments section to agree or disagree with our picks or rankings.

7. Robert Gates (Defense): Gates is already the Secretary of Defense. So, he doesn't need to be confirmed by the Senate. Done and done.

6. Tim Geithner (Treasury): Geithner's credentials as head of the New York Fed are impeccable, and, given the current economic strife gripping the country, it's hard to imagine any senator risking his or her political life by delaying this confirmation in any way, shape or form.

5. Janet Napolitano (Homeland Security): The strong support of Sen. John McCain for his home state governor's nomination to the post would seem to clear the decks for Napolitano. Party operatives who know her also speak highly of her political acumen and smarts so don't expect any flubs here. (Napolitano would almost assuredly welcome a lower profile given the hubbub over comments made about her this week by Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.)

4 (tie). Tom Daschle (Health and Human Services)/Hillary Rodham Clinton (State): Both Daschle and Clinton have their enemies in the Senate but the world's greatest deliberative body generally protects its own -- Tower being a high-profile exception -- and it's hard to imagine either nominee getting too bad a grilling from their colleagues.

2. Bill Richardson (Commerce): Working in the New Mexico governor's favor is that he spent nearly two decades in Congress -- building relationships that should help him during confirmation. Richardson's role in the Wen Ho Lee case during his tenure as Energy Secretary in the Clinton Administration is already being mentioned as an issue and almost assuredly will come up during confirmation hearings.

1. Eric Holder (Justice): Holder, who led Obama's vice presidential search earlier this year, seems to be the one nominee thus far about whom Republicans are publicly raising questions. The central issue for Holder is the pardon by President Bill Clinton of financier Marc Rich whose ex-wife was a major donor to the Clintons and the Democratic Party. During the Rich pardon, Holder was serving as deputy attorney general and played enough of a role for the Post's own Richard Cohen to insist in a recent column that Holder should be disqualified for the AG post.

By Chris Cillizza | December 5, 2008; 5:45 AM ET

Best of China Blog

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinajournal/2008/12/03/best-of-the-china-blogs-december-4/

–Chinese-American activists are gearing up to protest Obama’s nomination of Bill Richardson for commerce secretary, calling into question his role in the handling of the Wen Ho Lee case. In 1999, Lee was wrongly accused of spying for China during Richardson’s tenure as energy secretary. [Huffington Post]

Sen Byrd on Richardson

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/us/politics/04richardson.html
His tenure at the Energy Department was marred by reports of nuclear security lapses at Los Alamos National Laboratory. At one contentious hearing, Senator Robert C. Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia, told him that he would never again “receive the support of the Senate of the United States for any office to which you might be appointed.”

Lest We Forget

http://www.asianweek.com/2008/12/04/a-slap-in-our-face-we-can%E2%80%99t-forget-what-richardson-did-to-wen-ho-lee/

A Slap in Our Face: We can’t forget what Richardson did to Wen Ho Lee

December 4, 2008

Wen Ho Lee is as close as it gets in contemporary Asian Pacific American history to a mythic victim of racism in our nation.

Unlike a symbol of injustice like a Rosa Parks, Lee was no activist and did not seek to challenge society. He was merely an ordinary Asian American scientist doing his life’s work. And solely because of his race was he wrongly suspected of being the most heinous kind of criminal to democracy — a spy.

For his ordeal, Lee rarely receives the respect he deserves and now lives in quiet obscurity after being stripped of his livelihood as a nuclear scientist. To add insult to injury, some still don’t think Lee is innocent.

Meanwhile, Bill Richardson, secretary of energy in the late 1990s and the man who fingered Lee and presided over his public flogging, remains in the limelight and is now being honored as President-elect Obama’s new secretary of commerce.

That may be the ultimate injustice to Wen Ho Lee.

Simply for his lead role in the Lee case, Richardson should have a karma deficit so huge that he should be happy to remain ensconced as the popular governor of New Mexico, far from the national stage.

But politics and ambition being what they are, Richardson has apparently rehabilitated himself to glory in the last eight years. His recent unsuccessful run for president seemed to be waged on the basis that someone who was Latino had to do it. Yet it’s likely he never saw himself with a real shot to win, and instead used the campaign to position himself to fail upwards.

Sure enough, at this year’s Democratic National Convention, the also-ran spoke on that last memorable night at Invesco Field and achieved what his failed presidential run could not — a real shot at national prominence and a place in Obama’s inner circle. I mean, there’s got to be a Latino in there somewhere, right?

Too bad it’s someone responsible for what is arguably the most prominent case of racism and xenophobia against Asian Americans since the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Richardson, the charming politician, would love for us all to forget Wen Ho Lee. But we must insist that APAs and all Americans go back to the memory vault and re-experience the pain of that episode, which caused a ripple effect from the white towers of academia to the dim sum houses of Chinatown and everywhere in between where Asian Americans were.

For a time in our country, every Chinese American was seen as a suspect. Whether student or professor, Asian or Asian American, just enough doubt was cast to impact all working relationships.

Wen Ho Lee’s pain suddenly became all our pain. We were all suspects. Before Sept.11 and the terrorist fear, the profiling standard was not a man with a turban, but a brainy Chinese or Asian American scientist or student with access to some form of technology, top secret or not. It really didn’t matter. All that mattered was your Asian heritage.

Richardson’s disgusting role
These days, the modern memory vault seems to be YouTube (check out this short recap of the Lee saga at: tiny.cc/BGHDZ). It’s a painful reminder of Richardson’s adamant defense of his role in the Lee case. The clip includes Richardson being grilled on 60 Minutes, as well as Lee being interviewed on NBC. There’s a shot of the cell where Lee spent nine months in solitary confinement, waiting for the trial that would exonerate him from espionage charges.

The broadcast clips unfortunately do not represent the overall media coverage, which was as close as it gets to a modern “yellow journalism.” The media and the government were in lockstep, feeding on each other. There were so many leaks to the media from federal sources that it could not have been done without some orchestration from the top of the Department of Energy. The New York Times was so gung-ho about being leaked upon, it lost its sense of ethics.

But even The Times was able to see its error. It ran a massive apology to Lee for its failure to present a fair human portrait of Lee and admitted to an over reliance on a few government sources.

The Times had no choice but to apologize. Even Judge James Parker, the presiding judge in the Lee case, issued an apology to Lee upon his release for how badly government prosecutors had bungled the case.
One man should have had the moral courage to change all of that history: Energy Secretary Bill Richardson. But he didn’t.

Now he hopes we’ve forgotten all about it. It would be quite the norm to forget what happens to Asian Americans; we have constantly been ignored, overlooked. How many Asian Americans do you see mentioned in the Obama transition? So why should we expect anything different now? Because America cannot afford to forget what happened to Lee.

President-elect Obama should not give in to Richardson’s charm or to the large Latino vote he claims. Latino activists have propped Richardson up as the “Latino guy.” But how many people outside a small circle even know Richardson is Latino? Besides, his race is irrelevant; ours isn’t.

A Richardson selection is purely a matter of ambition and political payback, not the public good. Surely there is someone better for the commerce job who doesn’t have a history of trading in xenophobia?

President-elect Obama shouldn’t dismiss concerns of Asian Americans who overwhelming supported his campaign. The choice sends a negative message to APAs everywhere. Richardson represents a regression. He is simply unfit to be part of any “cabinet of change.”

On-line petitions are being circulated at http://www.wenholee.org/ and petitiononline.com/GovBillR/petition.html. For updates and other musings on the Obama transition, David Chiu and more, check out amok.asianweek.com.

A modern-day Simon Cameron

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2008/12/022228.php

Bill Richardson, president-elect Obama's choice for Secretary of Commerce, has dismissed the idea that the Obama cabinet is a "team of rivals." Richardson is correct to this extent -- he does not rival Obama and never has. "Team of self-promoting hacks" would better fit Richardson's case, but it's not very catchy. If this really is, somehow, Lincoln's Cabinet redeux, then perhaps we can cast Richardson as Simon Cameron. This relatively undistingushed (to my knowledge) Pennsylvania Senator ran for president in 1860, threw his support to Lincoln at the convention, and was rewarded with the job of Secretary of War. He lasted a year.

If my assessment of Richardson seems harsh, consider that, despite being the nation's leading Hispanic politician, Obama had nothing better to offer him than Secetary of Commerce. You can also consult my past posts about Richardson.

The Washington Post notes that Richardson' selection "breaks with tradition" by "putting a longtime public servant in a position that has recently been held by private-sector executives." Stated differently, Obama has put the Commerce Department in the hands of someone who, as far as appears, knows little if anything about business. Richardson entered the political world straight out of college, becoming a staffer for a Massachusetts Congressman. He has never really looked back at the real world.

The Post notes that Richardson has considerable diplomatic experience, which includes face-to-face meetings with Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein, and "a host of North Korean officials." What these meetings accomplished is unclear. How they translate into a qualification for Secretary of Commerce is equally unclear, but also largely irrelevant. What matters is that Obama has found a place to park the modern-day Simon Cameron.

Betrayal

I couldn't say it better. Below is a comment posted by Barbara on a Los Angeles Times blog when Richardson was officially nominated:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/12/03/obama-nominates-richardson-for-cabinet/
December 3rd, 2008 5:16 pm ET

The appointment of Richardson to the Cabinet is absolutely mind-boggling. Richardson has already shown himself to be disloyal as per his deflection from the Clinton camp when something better came along. Bill Clinton made this made and he repaid him with his betrayal. Does Obama think he has the magic lantern? Richardson will betray him just as easily! And to make matters worse, Richardson used his position as former Energy Secretary to further feather his nest by working for the oil companies after leaving the White House. What a dirt bag! Judas.

Bill Clinton says Richardson told the Clintons 5 times that he would not endorse Obama and ABC's Mark Halperin reported that Richardson said Obama could not beat McCain. Yet, when it looked like Obama would beat Hillary, he endorsed Obama.

James Carville, described Richardson as a "Judas" who was cashing in "30 coins of silver" to win favor with Obama. And in a March 25, 2008 NY Times article by Patrick Healy, Carville said "he stood by his comment on Good Friday in which he compared Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico to Judas for his endorsement of Senator Barack Obama." Carville declared, "I was quoted accurately and in context, and I was glad to give the quote, and I was glad I gave it. I'm not apologizing, I'm not resigning, I'm not doing anything."

BBC on Bill Richardson

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7763366.stm
James Carville, a close aide and friend to the Clintons, compared Mr Richardson to Judas Iscariot.

At the time, some commentators accused Mr Richardson of making his endorsement in the hope of landing a senior position in any future Obama administration - possibly even the role of Secretary of State, a role that Mrs Clinton is set to occupy.