Glass Houses
“I am taking this step because we have to repair the damage that’s been done to our country over the last six years.” - Bill Richardson announcing the formation of his Presidential Exploratory Committee
Now that Hillary Clinton has announced her entry into the Presidential race, all those with Presidential aspirations have now come out of the woodwork to stake their claim to their 15 minutes of fame, lest they be denied a seat on the bandwagon. Democrat Bill Richardson is no exception. The Democratic field is quite interesting. But not because it’s the most diverse field in history with women, blacks, and Hispanics. Now, we also have to wade through a morass of inexperience, hypocrisy, and divisive rhetoric.Bill Richardson claims to be different. He touts his breadth of experience. Governor of New Mexico. Energy Secretary under Bill Clinton. US Ambassador to the U.N. He says he’s negotiated with good guys and bad, and that makes him uniquely qualified to be President.Let’s examine some of Richardson’s claims over the years.
For over 40 years, he maintained that he had been drafted into Major League Baseball by the Kansas City Athletics back in 1966. After the Albuquerque Journal investigated and found no record of Richardson ever being drafted, he explained: “After being notified of the situation and after researching the matter… I came to the conclusion that I was not drafted by the A’s.”
He spent over a decade in Congress, never really facing a serious challenge in his heavily Democratic district. But by far, my biggest problem with Bill Richardson’s candidacy for President is his negligence. His indifference to Chinese espionage threats and the theft of many of our nuclear secrets while he was Energy Secretary, as documented in the Cox Report. His tenure was forever stained by the Wen Ho Lee espionage case and the Chinese theft of the crown jewels of our nuclear arsenal: hard drives containing information on the W88 warhead and Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicle, or MIRV.
Bill Richardson is not a patriotic American who deserves to be President. He is a traitor to this nation who, at the very least, looked the other way while the Chinese were infiltrating Los Alamos Labs and stealing our nuclear weapons secrets. He should have been jailed for what he has done. In order to understand how serious this threat was, you need to consider what else China was doing at the time. Johnny Chung, a two-bit fax spammer and close friend of Bill Clinton, was indicted and eventually convicted of fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to violate election laws for trying to influence US political campaigns with more than $300,000 in Chinese cash.
The Chinese economy was going global. There were billions to be made by American companies in China’s emerging capitalist boom. As a precondition of Chinese market access by US companies, the Chinese often bribed American companies to lobby the US Administration to relax export controls on dual-use equipment that has potential for military application. Bernie Schwartz of Hughes Electronics Loral Space Systems personally lobbied Bill Clinton to transfer control of export licensing authority for satellite and rocketry technology from the State Department to the less-stringent commerce department where it would be easier for the Chinese to get their hands on it.
If you remember, there were many Chinese rocket failures with the payloads crashing shortly after launch or burning up right on the launch pad. Until Bernie Schwartz helped the Chinese, that is. What Americans are looking for in a President is integrity and honesty. Someone without baggage; without character flaws. We’ve had enough of character flaws with both of the last two Presidents. Lying to bolster one’s image or career is a character flaw.
Richardson was so incompetent as Energy Secretary, that during Senate investigations into the handling of the Chinese espionage allegations, Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), a fellow Democrat, said Richardson had “shown a contempt of Congress that borders on supreme arrogance…You will never receive the support of the Senate of the United States for any office to which you may be appointed.”
Pretty serious stuff, wouldn’t you say? In his own words, Richardson is “taking this step because we have to repair the damage that’s been done to our country over the last six years.” Oh, the irony. The damage Richardson has done to the national security of this nation can NEVER be undone. China’s recent destruction of a defunct satellite in Earth orbit may very well signal the beginning of yet another arms race, this time with the Chinese, just to keep our communications and intelligence capabilities intact.
People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. Inevitably it comes back to bite ‘em. Bill Richardson doesn’t even belong cutting the White House lawn. He belongs in stripes with a ball and chain around his ankle, an hour of exercise a day and a cellmate named “Bubba”.
