It's the season for running the names of possible vice presidents up various flagpoles to see if anyone salutes. One name caught the eye of PNS commentator George Koo. Koo is a member of Committee of 100, a national organization of prominent Chinese Americans.

Recently, California's Latino political leaders floated the name of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson as an ideal vice presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket headed by Al Gore in the coming election.

Shortly after these trial balloons were released came new revelations on how the federal government has concocted its case against Dr. Wen Ho Lee, the Los Alamos scientist currently awaiting trial in solitary confinement. As Richardson is the central figure in the case against Lee, these developments can only damage his chance of becoming Gore's running mate.

The latest disclosure indicates that the government reclassified and upgraded the data Lee is accused of downloading.

The documents were labeled "PARD" (Protect As Restricted Data), the lowest possible level classified data. After the government decided to indict Lee and -- years after the downloading occurred -- the PARD computer files were raised at least four levels to "secret" to justify Lee's indictment.

Another recent disclosure indicates that FBI had long considered Lee a spy. In the mid 1980s, Lee made a solicitous call to another Taiwan-born scientist working at the Livermore Lab who was suspected of espionage.

What is Lee being accused of? The FBI admits it found no evidence that Lee leaked any information on the W88 multi-warhead missile. The best they could come up with is that Lee illegally downloaded restricted files. To strengthen their case, it was apparently necessary to upgrade the importance of the restricted files.

Even then, there has been no talk of no evidence that Lee disclosed the information to any foreign powers. Just the mere thought that he might do so is evidently enough to put him in solitary confinement and in leg irons.

The recent revelations make it clear the government case against Lee is less than flimsy. Many speculate that the charges against Lee will be dropped as soon the presidential election is over.

This makes sense because this case sprang from politics of the basest kind. Namely, Lee fits the racial profile needed for a scapegoat to appease the right wing Republicans. Republicans has been using the Cox Report to accuse the administration of coddling China and allowing the labs to leak like a sieve.

Some of those who back Richardson as Gore's running mate argue that his last name will disguise his Latino roots, so he could sneak by voters who might hold that against the ticket.

There is another racial dimension here. Asian Americans hold Richardson responsible for the Wen Ho Lee debacle. From the day in March 1999 when he fired Lee to December when Lee was arrested, Richardson had many opportunities to admit his error and call off the dogs.

For Gore to pick Richardson would confirm the suspicions of many Asian Americans that Gore is staying away from Asian American issues and ignoring Asian American sensitivities. This comes in the wake of the Hsi Lai temple fiasco. In that situation he could have pointed out that a Taiwan-based Buddhist temple is an unlikely Laundromat for illegal campaign contributions from China. Instead he choose to stay away from Asian Americans.

He won't be able to hide much longer. Asian American voters are notorious cross-over voters. They make up roughly 10% of the voters in California and 5% in New York and New Jersey. They can swing these states to one candidate or the other. That is a lot of electoral votes to ignore.