Bush Homeland Security Adviser Blames Reporter For "Cash For Access" Scandal

It was the reporter's fault.

That's pretty much what Homeland Security adviser and Houston businessman Stephen Payne said.

Payne claims he never meant to suggest -- as a video from the Times of London suggests -- that he could arrange meetings with high-level Bush Administration officials in exchange for a large contribution to the Bush presidential library fund.

...

Payne told the Dallas Morning News that the paper edited out his remarks that would absolve him of suspicion.

"Over the course of an hourlong conversation in a social setting, isolated comments can be taken out of context," he said in the statement. Mr. Payne accused the paper of "manufacturing" the news and making him the victim of a "confidence game."

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