From the Incestuous World of Bushco

From the Washington Post:
Bush Adviser Helped Law Firm Land Job Lobbying for CNOOC

President Bush's top independent intelligence adviser met last winter with investment bankers in China to help secure his law firm's role in lobbying for a state-run Chinese energy firm and its bid for the U.S. oil company Unocal Corp., according to his law firm, Akin Gump.

The involvement of James C. Langdon Jr., chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and a major Bush fundraiser, underscores the tangled Washington connections beneath CNOOC Ltd.'s bid. Both CNOOC and its rival for Unocal, Chevron Corp., have enlisted lobbyists and public relations professionals with deep ties to the Bush White House and Republican leaders in Congress. Wayne L. Berman, a principal lobbyist for Chevron, is a Bush "Ranger," having raised at least $200,000 for the president's campaign. His wife, Lea, is the White House social secretary. Langdon's involvement, given his dual role as Bush intelligence adviser and energy lawyer at the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, may prove politically problematic, some security experts said. Members of the intelligence board, known as PFIAB, are granted the highest security clearance and develop top-secret advisories and reports for the president, most of which are not even available to members of Congress.

Curt Weldon (7th dost PA-R) certainly not a liberal , "vowed to raise questions of Langdon's involvement, saying, "Unfortunately, corporate dollars often transcend national security."
The China-hawk want on to say that, "Unfortunately, corporate dollars often transcend national security."

The questions of how far Langdon influenced the deal will remain a volatile issue as the deal progresses further. To be fair he did recuse himself from further negotiations and the approval process, however the outstanding questions are:

How much influence did Langdon exert in bringing the deal to the table in the
first place?
How much input came from the increasingly besieged and ethically challenged
White House?

A further issue, with even entrenched and devout conservatives breaking ranks with the White House it calls into question the amount of "political capital" the President has with his own party, let alone with the rest of the country.