The Memo Comes In From the Cold

" 'Potus [president of the United States] rejected Kyoto in part based on input from you [the Global Climate Coalition],' says one briefing note before Ms Dobriansky's meeting with the GCC, the main anti-Kyoto US industry group, which was dominated by Exxon."

An Audience With the President

Lou Dubose writes in the Texas Observer: "Four months after he took the oath of office in 2001, President George W. Bush was the attraction, and the White House the venue, for a fundraiser organized by the alleged perpetrator of the largest billing fraud in the history of corporate lobbying."

Or, somewhat less breathlessly, as Suzanne Gamboa writes for the Associated Press: "At the behest of a lobbyist now under criminal investigation, two Indian tribes paid $25,000 each to a conservative tax-exempt group to underwrite an event that scored tribal leaders a private meeting with President Bush.

"The arrangement in 2001 between the tribes, lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the Americans for Tax Reform group, led by Bush supporter Grover Norquist, was confirmed by tribal lawyers and documents showing the solicitation of money and promise of a meeting. . . .

"Lovelin Poncho, who is stepping down after 20 years as Coushatta tribal chairman, recalled meeting with Bush for about 15 minutes, his attorney said. An itinerary said the meeting was in the Old Executive Office Building, next to the White House. Poncho recalls Abramoff also attended, said the lawyer, who spoke on condition he not be named."

Here are some of the related documents .

Elizabeth Drew writes in the New York Review of Books with an overview of the current state of lobbying: "Abramoff's behavior is symptomatic of the unprecedented corruption -- the intensified buying and selling of influence over legislation and federal policy -- that has become endemic in Washington under a Republican Congress and White House. Corruption has always been present in Washington, but in recent years it has become more sophisticated, pervasive, and blatant than ever."

Boeing and the 45 Deleted References

Mike Allen writes in The Washington Post: "Senators urged the Pentagon's inspector general yesterday to release more information about the involvement of White House officials and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in an aborted $30 billion air-tanker deal that exposed gaping holes in the government's controls on large purchases. . . .

"Former Air Force secretary James G. Roche said in a January letter to [Pentagon inspector general, Joseph E.] Schmitz, included in the report, that the tanker talks had included 'senior White House staff' and President Bush's budget office. . . .

"White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. has previously been identified as playing a role in the negotiations. White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Card had served 'simply as an honest broker to make sure that all views were represented and to make sure that it was completed in a timely matter, because it was relating to a national security need that was pressing.'"

Here's the inspector general's report , complete with deletions.

At a particularly contentious press briefing yesterday, McClellan tried to brush off questions about whether the White House should be more transparent about its role.