Richardson not new to confirmation hearings

Steve Terrell | The New Mexican

12/3/2008 - 12/4/08

Bill Richardson has been through this dance a couple of times before.

Twice in the 1990s, Richardson went through confirmation hearings in the U.S. Senate before taking appointed positions in President Bill Clinton's administration.

Now he faces a hearing before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation as he seeks confirmation as secretary of commerce in the Barack Obama administration.

Nobody at this point predicts anything but confirmation by the Democrat-controlled Senate. No serious opposition has arisen to his nomination.

However, there are rumblings that could lead to some pointed questions at his hearings.

Chinese Americans in Northern California are still upset over Richardson's role as energy secretary in the Wen Ho Lee case and have launched a campaign to oppose the Commerce nomination. Lee is a Taiwan-born scientist who worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He was fired by Richardson in 1999 and later was indicted on 59 felony counts alleging he illegally transferred weapons codes to unsecured computers and tape. Lee was held in solitary confinement for nine months. But after the government's case eventually fell apart, Lee pleaded guilty to a single felony count of downloading sensitive material.

A federal judge in a lawsuit Lee later filed against the government and several news organizations said he suspected Richardson was the one who leaked Lee's name to reporters before he was fired. The governor has consistently denied this. The case was settled before the leaker was revealed.

During a debate in Iowa last year, Richardson, then a presidential candidate, said, "I do feel (Lee) was incarcerated in solitary confinement. This was wrong. I tried to change it, but I didn't work hard enough."

While the state Republican Party chairman issued a brief statement congratulating Richardson on Wednesday, the national party was much more harsh. Even before Obama formally announced Richardson's selection, the Republican National Committee e-mailed a scathing news release titled "Back For More? Nothing Says Change Like Scandal Prone Washington Insider Bill Richardson Back In The Cabinet" The lengthy document outlines several Richardson controversies going back to his days in the Clinton cabinet through his years as governor, including using corporate jets of companies lobbying for legislation in the state; alleged favors for campaign contributors; using a state helicopter for a horseback-riding excursion and being "a relentless self promoter."

The RNC also notes such episodes as Richardson's brief tenure on the board of Peregrine Systems, a software company that went belly-up and resulted in its chief executive officer — related to Richardson through marriage — pleading guilty to fraud. The Republicans point out Richardson was named in a class-action lawsuit but don't mention his name was later dropped from the suit.

Previous hearings

In January 1997, when Clinton tapped Richardson for United Nations ambassador, Richardson was called to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Senators from both parties praised Richardson's skills as a politician and diplomat. Then-committee Chairman Jesse Helms, R-N.C., had no criticism for Richardson, though, according to news accounts at the time, he questioned some of Clinton's U.N. policies.

After a two-hour hearing, Richardson won a unanimous recommendation from the committee and went on to sail through a confirmation vote by the full Senate.

But Richardson's next hearing, held about a year and a half later when he was nominated for energy secretary, was a little bit bumpier.

Though The Associated Press reported in July 1998 that Richardson got a "generally warm welcome" from the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Richardson caught some flak from Republicans who had been critical of Clinton's nuclear waste storage policies. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, told Richardson he intended to block the nomination until the administration negotiated with the Senate on storing waste in the Yucca Mountain facility.

And then there was the Monica Lewinsky issue.

Richardson, at the request of White House Chief of Staff John Podesta, had interviewed Lewinsky for a job at the U.N. — and ended up offering her a job. Richardson always has insisted he did not know then about Lewinsky's sexual affair with Clinton.

Committee Chairman Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, "expressed surprise Richardson would conduct an interview for a relatively low-level job," The Associated Press reported, "but Richardson said it was 'a very normal procedure for me' to participate in interviews for political jobs and that he was acting as a favor to Podesta, a friend."

Although the committee eventually made a positive recommendation on Richardson, before Richardson took office, Murkowski asked he not be sworn in as energy secretary until the committee could investigate whether he had made misleading statements about Lewinsky. A few days later, Murkowski announced a bipartisan staff review determined Lewinsky was not given special treatment by Richardson.

But his confirmation hearings were not his toughest time before a Senate committee.

At a June 2000 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing where Richardson was the principal witness, Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.V., and other senators were angry with Richardson for not showing up at a scheduled hearing on security problems at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

"You've had a bright and brilliant career," Byrd told Richardson. "But you will never again receive the support of the Senate of the United States for any office to which you might be appointed. It's gone. You've squandered your treasure."

New Mexico Republicans used footage of the Byrd scolding in an anti-Richardson political ad during the 2002 gubernatorial race. But Byrd in a written statement said: "I am outraged that Republicans would take my remarks out of context and use them for a political attack ad against Bill Richardson. This amounts to dirty tricks and desperate tactics by political hacks."

Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com.