These emails appear to be just as damning as the tape. This guy really doesn't get it, does he? Just because individuals in the government don't get a direct bribe, still doesn't mean these "donations" are ethical. I'd like to pick up a cool $450K for a phone call to an old political pal to arrange a meeting with the VP for my "client." What a despicable pack of thieves. Puppet regimes in Africa and South America aren't even in the same league with these crooks.

I don't know why he's even bothering to defend himself as doing so is just extending the shelf life of this story. I mean the MSM basically ignored it, so just keep your mouth shut and let the story die. I mean Fournier has remained unscathed and that story is already dead. The Gramm "whining" remark didn't make it past the Sunday talk shows. Nothing sticks when the GOP is involved.

Selling access and influence for Library donations - not newsworthy. Brand and Angelina have twins and now that's news.

The AP Washington Bureau Chief is a Rovian "True Believer" isn't newsworthy no matter how biased and slanted the AP has become under him because he's fighting the good fight for the GOP.

Gramm calls the country a bunch of whiners and the economic woes imaginary and McCain can distance himself with one statement, never mind he is still working for the McCain campaign. That shouldn't surprise as Gramm was helping to write McCain's economic policy while a paid lobbyist for UBS but that wasn't deemed newsworthy either.

Moral of the story, if you are GOP or GOP aligned and get caught up in a potential shitstorm just keep your head down and it will pass over within a couple of days with next to no MSM coverage. And if you are lucky a different GOP scandal will break and you'll be instantly yesterdays news.

I'm sure his deleted response was also totally above reproach. He just didn't want to share.

Great reporting!!!

This is the most unbelievable story, and after 48 hours the MSM completely ignored this.

This is so much worse than Abramoff. This guy has manipulated US foreign policy for dictators like Musharraf and Nazarbayev.

WHY AREN'T DEMOCRATS JUMPING ALL OVER THIS ONE?

I was a prosecutor at the county level, in the military and in the federal courts. Gosh, I sure do not see a single bit of entrapment. What I see is a person who sure likes to talk about money changing hands in order to talk to certain officials. He protests only when Cheney's people are mentioned.

I also spent a lot of time litigating government contracts and later served as senior counsel with a fairly large aerospace company. Had a lot of dealings with countries having a looser standard of law and ethics. I had to train our salesmen and executives to really stay on a very clear bright line with regards to kick backs and other such activities. I view his actions from about ten years of dealing with those matters in corporate legal life.

An innocent person would have been up front with the very first e-mail by stating that he would appreciate donations but that they are absolutely not required to arrange meetings with the officials. I especially like the discussion concerning bringing money into the US. I would have responded that the same method always used to pay for lobbying fees should be used since this is simply the payment for a donation and totally above board.

The e-mail discussing illegality raises my hackles. It clearly shows a wink and a nod to what is going on. An innocent person would simply have made it clear that these were normal fees and unconditional donation as well as indicating that any belief to the contrary is mistaken since there was no quid pro quo. Indeed, most innocent persons would go that extra step to say that if there were any belief that influence or access (even though it may not be illegal, unless your Seigleman) was purchased; then the transaction should not go forward.

Of course there is some question as to the legality of the actions. I believe that you would not be able to sustain a bribery case. However, it was clearly, clearly unethical. One would really have to question whether there was knowledge on the part administration officials as to the donation system.

This is too funny. He has just admitted that he deleted relevant evidence has been deleted (at some undisclosed time). And Waxman's about to investigate and (most likely) subpoena stuff from his computers. Maybe he'll pull a Bloch and have the Geek Squad come over and make sure all the email is really "gone."

Remarkable.

Also kind of interesting is that some of the emails have > next to entire quoted messages, which means that his responses would have shown up somewhere in the correspondence. Not all of those emails were set up not to quote.

I'm just sayin'.

Just like the Lincoln bedroom, but for more money.

This guy in indicting himself. He refers to the funds that he gets from the kazaks, and that he will be making donation before november, "the more funding we have, the larger those donations will be".

He is admitting to a conspiracy to front for agents of a foreign country, in a bid to influence a U.S. election.

Can anyone say "Money Laundering"

These guys are crazy, greedy, and they think we are stupid.

Moments after the above picture was taken, this was heard...

"GEORGE!... Put down the chainsaw"

"Well, DAMN IT Stephen, don't sneak up behind me like that. I though you were Cheney!"

This is really funny. He thinks he's exonerated because of his wink-wink emails? When asked for confirmation that $$ = action, he writes

...that would be bribery in this country -- you know my firm's track record, you know how we get things done, but I can't engage in conversations of "I'll get this exact thing done for that specific amount of money because I'm giving part of the money to bush or cheney" it doesn't work like that here...