Richardson was called on, as UN Ambassador ('97), to fix the Lewdwinski mess.
When that failed, he was moved to Energy ('98) to fix the security mess. Richardson was a buttboy and appointed to Energy for a specific purpose, take the heat.
We must not forget that it was Hazel O'Leary who publicly announced her intentions to make nuke secrets public. Her attitude led to the nuke lab downloads to Red China and zero security at the facilities. Federico Pena refused to (was incapable of) fixing O'Leary's treason. Richardson was perfectly willing to obfuscate and be the fall guy. Thus Sen. Byrd's condemnation
Richardson knows where all the skeletons are buried. Some Clinton cabinet members have short lifespans. Perhaps Richardson has an insurance policy.
yitbos
That's the only thing that makes sense to me. He sure didn't get it on merit, and not even being Mr. Minority should do the trick.