Took a look at the email chain. One thing did jump out at me (bolded in the quote):
From: Faiz Shakir <FShakir@americanprogress.org>
To: Tapper, Jake <Jake.Tapper@abc.com>
Sent: Sun May 03 23:38:33 2009
Subject: RE: following up
Thanks Jake -- I appreciate your honesty. It's my understanding that a right-wing radio host was peddling this to you, and I'm going to assert that you gave their cause some legs. I wanted to give you a heads-up and an opportunity to comment. If you'd like to go on record with anything, please let me know.
Their cause?