A politician's private correspondence often differs with his or her public positions. Hillary Clinton is no different, and the latest trove of documents from WikiLeaks - which yielded more yawns than bombshells - shows that her tone can tilt depending on the corporation paying her speaking fee that day.

And it's true that these leaks must be reported as long as you can authenticate the material and it serves a public interest, even when it's a tax statement showing a $1 billion loss or a video tape exposing a sexual predator.

But when the source of a leaked document is a hostile government, and that material is solicited by the candidate who repeatedly makes apologies for that foreign interest, our democracy is on a slippery slope.

Donald Trump is brimming with hope that there will be more politically-charged documents criminally hacked by Vladimir Putin's government and fed to Julian Assange.

He recites much of what he sees out of context, benign as it is, directly off the prompter. Then he asks for more, and that is disturbing, because it doesn't matter to Trump that a Russian dictator and his useful idiot are trying to corrupt an American presidential election.

This should be an alarm bell for most voters. Once, we had candidates who had the sense to keep their distance from adversarial governments - if only to validate our national mistrust - but Trump, the same guy who called for Edward Snowden's execution, now gushes, "I love WikiLeaks!"

Clearly, he loves the semi-useful information hacked from Democratic officials, the Clinton Foundation, and state election systems.

But Trump curiously refuses to acknowledge that this love originates with Russian criminals, and he still hasn't explained his pro-Kremlin sympathies.

He hasn't explained why he repeatedly calls a kleptocrat a "stronger leader" than President Obama, other than poll numbers; why he claims Russia had not invaded Ukraine or annexed Crimea; why he hasn't denounced its intimidation of the Baltic states, or hasn't pledged his allegiance to NATO allies against Russian aggression; why he rejected Mike Pence's call for Putin's provocation to be "met with American strength"; and why he calls for Russians to commit more cyber-espionage.

Nor has he acknowledged how he was bankrolled by Russian investors, when American banks closed the spigot after his multiple bankruptcies; and how his three advisors - Paul Manafort, Carter Page, and Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn - have connections to Russian oligarchs.

The Clinton transcripts are interesting reading, but little else: She seems wobbly on fracking, trade and Keystone, but she largely comes across as a smart and pragmatic politician.

What voters should find troubling is Trump's enthusiasm for the material, and his consistency in staking out positions that are aligned with its contemptible source.

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