As the drip of information about Chinese theft of U.S. nuclear secrets lowly became a crescendo and threatened to turn into a landslide, the anticipation of full disclosure by key congressional players seemed almost palpable. Over the past couple of weeks, you could feel the momentum building.

Bill Clinton was finally within reach, and not for something as sultry, or -- as it turns out -- as ordinary as sex. No, some congressmen were beginning to utter the "T" word -- treason -- when they began speaking privately about the Clinton administration and Chinese espionage.

Even this past weekend, host Tim Russert of MSNBC was able to extract an admission of guilt from Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, who said, yes, the Chinese stole our nuclear technology and, yes, Bill Clinton knew about it in advance.

Man. A scandal tailor-made in heaven for conservatives.

But it was too late. The Chinese Embassy in Belgrade had already been bombed. Now, suddenly, the opportunity to get the Chinese to cooperate with U.S. agents investigating the alleged thefts had abruptly ended. When the walls of the Chinese Embassy came crashing down, so too did our chance to find out what really happened.

At least, that's how the Clinton administration may spin this. You can just hear the excuse rolling off the lips of Clinton spinmeisters now, can't you?

"Darn it. You know, the Chinese were just about to tell us everything we wanted to know regarding this espionage thing. But since we accidentally bombed their embassy, now they aren't talking to us." Thank you, Joe Lockhart.

If you don't think that this administration is capable of striking a deal with the Chinese to let U.S. planes bomb their embassy, so that both countries can "suddenly" develop "differences" which would prevent full disclosure in the nuclear espionage scandal, then you haven't been paying much attention. Clinton is not only capable of this level of chicanery, there are already people who are actively talking about it.

Yesterday during Rush Limbaugh's program, he read an email from MSNBC's Jay Severin, in which Severin suggested just such a conspiracy. The more I thought about it, the more plausible I think it is.

To dismiss this theory out of hand, you'd have to have already made your mind up about a number of other implausible things.

For instance, you would already have to believe that the Central Intelligence Agency is so inept, they couldn't identify the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.

You'd also have to believe that U.S. weaponry is so bad that we could accidentally send four bombs into the embassy using laser-guided technology.

Then, you'd have to assume that Bill Clinton and the Chinese have had absolutely no relationship whatsoever for the past six years. Plus, you'd have to discount all the hard evidence showing Chinese financial contributions to the Clinton/Gore reelection campaign in 1996.

Next, you'd have to believe that neither Clinton, nor any of his spokesmen, have ever lied to you. Good luck with that one.

Finally, what with the amount of information already released about China's spying activities at our nuclear weapons labs, you'd have to believe that people like Rep. Chris Cox, R-Calif., really didn't have any hard information that was damaging or harmful to national security. But, since most Americans have already found out that at least some damage has been done due to Chinese spying, there goes that excuse.

Nobody hates conspiracy theories worse than me. But you've got to admit: with this administration, anything is possible and certainly anything that would involve collusion with the Chinese government.

The benefits, besides the effective death of the China spy scandal, would be almost as damaging as the theft of technology. Beijing would no doubt squeeze even more concessions on trade, human rights, and technology transfers from the Clinton White House, for agreeing to allow U.S. planes to kill a few Chinese citizens.

You have to remember that communists don't consider life as valuable as we do. And, Chinese leaders don't have to depend on polls, focus groups, sound bites and spin control to stay in power.

So, there it is -- the mother of all conspiracies.

Is it true? Who knows? But, the more important question ought to be, is it even possible?

We're dealing with the Clinton administration. Therefore, the answer to the last question should be obvious.