It took him a few weeks, but Colorado Republican and Senate candidate Bob Schaffer finally spoke publicly about the recent conviction of a former business associate for defrauding the EPA.

Specifically, Schaffer said he had no involvement in securing the $3.6 million earmark that led to the fraud conviction of Colorado businessman Bill Orr.

He spoke to a reporter from the Rocky Mountain News:

"I did not advocate his earmark. In fact, I was unaware of his earmark," Schaffer said, adding he voted against the bill that contained the earmark.

We'd been trying to get Schaffer to talk about that 2000 earmark for weeks. After a federal jury in May concluded that the National Alternative Fuels Foundation was a scam that was bilking taxpayer dollars with junk science, we called every lawmaker from the Colorado delegation at that time. Schaffer, who served on the group's board of directors after leaving the House, was the only one who wouldn't return our calls.

One of Schaffer's political friends, Scott Shires, told the Rocky Mountain News that Orr got the federal money with help from an out-of-state lawmaker.

Shires said Orr told him the earmark was inserted into the bill by a key House committee staffer at the direction of a non-Colorado congressman, and that a "very expensive bottle of whiskey" changed hands.

A new twist in his story is that Schaffer now says he was a paid board member. Previously, his campaign had denied he received any money in that role. Schaffer said he was paid about $1,500 for the several months he spent serving on the board of directors from about December 2004 to March 2005.

The EPA froze the NAFF grant in January 2005, after paying out about $2 million to the group. Schaffer said Department of Justice investigators interviewed him about the NAFF in February 2005, just before he resigned his position on the board in March.

Schaffer's says he signed on with the NAFF at the suggestion of his pal Shires, a longtime GOP operative in Colorado who was serving as NAFF's salaried treasurer. Shires and Schaffer have known each other for years and Shires has served as the registered agent for one of Schaffer's campaigns.

Shires was in federal court today getting sentenced for a misdemeanor charge connected with the NAFF investigation. A judge gave him a year's probation and a $3,450 fine for failure to file a tax report. He'd pleaded guilty in 2006 and agreed to testify against Orr.

We're still at it trying to figure out which lawmaker was behind that $3.6 million earmark that led to last week's conviction of a Denver businessman on charges of criminal fraud.

As we told you last week, we think it might have been Colorado Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer.

Schaffer was in Congress when the earmark was awarded to the little-known not-for-profit founded by Bill Orr, who was convicted last week. And when Schaffer left Congress, he went on to become a director for Orr's group, the National Alternative Fuels Foundation, where his political buddy Scott Shires was treasurer. Shires pleaded guilty and testified against Orr.

Today we called Thomas Vanek, a former staffer for the House Science Committee's subcommittee on energy and environment, who testified at Orr's trial. He oversaw the authorization of the $3.6 million earmark back in October 2000.

I asked Vanek whether Orr received any help from members of Congress in securing the earmark.

"He may have gotten a member of Congress or two involved to get a thumbs up. I don't recall," said Vanek, who is now a senior policy advisor at the Department of Energy in Washington.

More specifically, I asked, do you think Bob Schaffer could have been involved in the earmark?

"He may well have been involved. Typically there would be a member involved. I'd say it's certainly possible. Likely? Who knows," Vanek said.

There's not much documentation tagged to earmarks, especially back then. Often influence is excercized verbally rather than on paper. With almost eight years distance, determining precisely who was involved back then is tough.

Usually, lawmakers are eager to take credit for bringing millions of dollars back home. But that's not the case here. We've contacted all eight members of the Colorado Congressional delegation from 2000, including the two we couldn't track down last week: former Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell and former Rep. Joel Hefley, both Republicans.

None of the lawmakers recalled any involvement with the National Alternative Fuels Foundation or its $3.6 million earmark.

So that leaves Schaffer. We've been calling everyday for a week now, but nobody from his campaign has gotten back to us.

Why doesn't Bob Schaffer want to talk about that earmark?