Henry Waxman Launches Probe Into Lobbyist Stephen Payne Who Allegedly Traded Access For Bush Library Donations

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Relations Committee, is wasting no time, and has announced that he will investigate Stephen Payne, a GOP lobbyist with ties to the Bush administration who allegedly solicit donations for the library in return for meeting with top administration officials.

Payne was the subject of an article in the Sunday Times of London this past weekend, including video. Payne, a major fundraiser for the Bush campaign in 2000 and 2004, is seen telling "Eric Dos," a Kazakh politician whose full name is Yerzhan Dosmukhamedov, that he can help arrange meetings with top Bush officials for Askar Akayev, the former president of Kyrgyzstan, who is now in exile in Moscow in return for donation to the yet-to-be-built Bush library. Payne suggested Dos get Akayev, or more precisely his children, kick in "maybe a couple of hundred thousand dollars, or something like that, not a huge amount but enough to show that they're serious." And Payne's firm would also pocket several hundred thousand dollars for its help.

Unfortunately for Payne, the Sunday Times had a reporter secretly videotaping his meeting with Dos, and now Waxman is looking into the matter.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[PoliticoJonze]

Why is this still buried? This should be in your headline.

[mpeachhead]

Why is this story buried at the bottom of the page? I heard it on CNN yesterday. All other media outlets seem to be ignoring it, including HuffPost. To me, this is a big issue. It confirms the notion that our government officials are for sale to the highest bidder all the way to the top.

[scooperss]

Maybe after he gets done there, he can investigate rangel for asking for donations from companies with business before his committee.

[larryfishkorn]

Basically, Dick Cheney could go on live television and tell the American People, "Yeah, I invaded Iraq to get the oil and the no-bid contracts, and I approved torture techniques after tryiong them out on homeless people, and I also hunt and kill orphaned children before I eat their hearts to stay young" and not a damn thing would happen. I guess anyone who still bothers to read the news is just numb to the whole thing, and they win. It's hard to muster outrage after 8 years, and they know that if they just press on with their agenda, they'll get away with all of it. The only justice we'll see will come as a heart attack.

[Oakland]

Why bother. They'll defy the subpoena, refuse to show up, and Pelosi will give them a hug. Pelosi and Reid need to go.

[HouseOfRoberts]

Pelosi, Reid, and apparently Rangel as well (see later article). if things don't change after this upcoming election, we better start cleaning the muskets!

[BADEN]

"Update for SMU Petition Signers, 7-14-08
Monday, July 14, 2008

I am Andrew J. Weaver, organizer of the petition at http://www.protectSMU.org and an ordained United Methodist clergyman and research psychologist. I am a graduate of Southern Methodist University (SMU) and live in New York City. There are over 12,500 petition signers including thousands of SMU alumni who are deeply concerned about the future of the university. I am very grateful for your faithfulness regarding this issue."

http://www.democrats.org/page/community/po...ikeworkman/CN2H

[brighterside]

Wow my dad who is also a SMU alumni and Methodist clergy will find this interesting. I will forward this to him.

[Sparty1]

Wow! This makes me want to throw up. If this had happened while Clinton was still in office, all kind of hell would've jumped off. This is just being pushed under the rug along with the other illegal things with this administration.

I really liked how the WH press secretary said that he was never an employee of the WH. We know that, but he's definitely pimping out the high level employees of the WH.

[PoliticoJonze]

This story should be the site headline. The AP is bought and paid for by the GOP I think that's generally accepted by most anyways and now we might have a sliver of proof. But this is a full blown video tape of a longtime Bush Crony selling top of the food chain GOP access for political donations. This is absolutely DAMNING and desperately needs to hit the MSM and big.

[zippywpinhead]

Sunday Times of London? I wish the US had a press that still did its job and actually managed some investigative journalism from time to time. I guess they're all too busy with flag pins or Lindsay Lohan's new sister...

[RTIII]

As Goebels - among others - observed, for control of the masses, you just need control of the media.

Need further proof we are in a fascist state now?

Need further proof our media is dead as a doornail?

We MUST have "divestiture" (monopoly break-up - the opposite of consolidation) of our Media if we are to ever again have a democratic republic.

As an aside, Noam Chomsky wrote a book about this of merit: Manufacturing Consent. It describes how government, "elite", and the media work as if there's a conspiracy without there actually being a technical conspiracy. In short, their interests are intertwined and each simply acting in what they perceive to be their own best interests has the effect of a self-perpetuating propaganda machine. ...Read the book...
.

[mostlyharmless]

yet another congressional investigation of more boosh administration wrongdoing? if the domestic spying, the lying us into war, the torture, the politicization of the d.o.j. and the thirty plus other crimes and misdemeanors didn't matter, why will this?

thanks, congress, but i'm not impressed

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

I don't even have to read the article to know the trade wasn't for BOOKS.

[noamjunior]

Is THIS the one crime of all the ones that Brings Bush down?
It is on video.

[ErnestineBass]

Hey, all they could pin on Al Capone was tax evasion...but at least they nailed him.

[guajiro]

It's amazing. With thousands upon thousands of registered lobbyists seeking donations for this or that, no one in the entire Washington D.C. area ever heard of a recording device. I mean, it's not like they're expensive or scarce. Tell you what mr/mrs politician or investigator. If you want to get rich, record an illegal transaction and then ask them what it's worth to them for you not to expose it to the media.

http://www.pimall.com/nais/recordaccess.html

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[ibsteve2u]

I know this is serious, but I can't seem to stop laughing at the oxymoron that is "The George W. Bush Library" long enough to focus...

[Stretchumall]

Just try to focus on the soon to be named GWB sh!tplant .

[ErnestineBass]

Poetic justice, that...

[marc1antony]

impeach the whole lot of them