Wow, a million a month raise, not bad,, all you have to do is give away the in-ground strategic reserve to oil pigs and sell out the country.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/26/AR2008072601891.html
Industry Gushed Money After Reversal on Drilling
By Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 27, 2008; Page A10
Campaign contributions from oil industry executives to Sen. John McCain
rose dramatically in the last half of June, after the senator from Arizona
made a high-profile split with environmentalists and reversed his
opposition to the federal ban on offshore drilling.
Oil and gas industry executives and employees donated $1.1 million to
McCain last month -- three-quarters of which came after his June 16 speech
calling for an end to the ban -- compared with $116,000 in March, $283,000
in April and $208,000 in May.
McCain said the policy reversal came as a response to rising voter anger
over soaring energy prices. At the time, about three-quarters of voters
responding to a Washington Post-ABC News poll said prices at the pump were
causing them financial hardship, the highest in surveys this decade.
Opening vast stretches of the country's coastline to oil exploration would
help America eliminate its dependence on foreign oil, McCain said.
"We have untapped oil reserves of at least 21 billion barrels in the United
States. But a broad federal moratorium stands in the way of energy
exploration and production," he said. "It is time for the federal
government to lift these restrictions."
McCain delivered the speech before heading to Texas for a series of
fundraisers with energy industry executives, and the day after the speech
he raised $1.3 million at a private luncheon and reception at the San
Antonio Country Club, according to local news accounts.
"The timing was significant," said David Donnelly, the national campaigns
director of the Public Campaign Action Fund, a nonpartisan campaign finance
reform group that conducted the analysis of McCain's oil industry
contributions. "This is a case study of how a candidate can change a policy
position in the interest of raising money."
Brian Rogers, a McCain campaign spokesman, said he considers any suggestion
that McCain weighed fundraising into his calculation on drilling policy
"completely absurd." Rogers noted that oil and gas money in June still
accounted for a very small fraction of the $48 million raised by the
campaign and by the Republican National Committee through its Victory Fund.
"John McCain takes positions because he thinks it's the right thing to do
for America," Rogers said. "He has a long track record of doing that. And
he's often made decisions that hurt with his fundraising base."
Oil and gas executives have not traditionally been a major source of
campaign money for McCain. A breakdown of giving by the Center for
Responsive Politics shows the industry falls 12th on a list of top donors,
well behind securities firms, lawyers, banks, and real estate and health
professionals.
McCain has historically sided against a number of the industry's interests,
opposing efforts to open certain public lands to drilling and embracing
proposals aimed at tackling global warming well before oil executives were
ready to do so.
Patrick C. Oxford, chairman of the Texas-based law firm Bracewell &
Giuliani, said there has been a contrast between the way the industry
embraced George W. Bush, a favorite son, and McCain. Oxford said that until
recently oil industry officials were motivated to back McCain because of
talk by Sen. Barack Obama "about needing to tax the hell out of the oil
companies."
That started changing in mid-June, he said. McCain's speech and subsequent
visit to Texas served the purpose of reintroducing him to the oil industry.
Oxford, whose law firm represents several large oil companies, wrote his
first check to McCain on June 27.
Charting the political donations of oil executives may be the best way to
evaluate the industry's level of interest in a presidential candidate, said
Robin West, chairman of PFC Energy, an industry adviser. Unlike other
businesses, oil and gas companies donot have a large labor force that can
provide a candidate an army of volunteers. And oil and gas concerns are
geographically confined, largely in states that are not viewed as central
to a presidential election strategy.
"It's for those reasons that the oil industry has always tried to be a
substantial contributor," West said.
And West said he thinks McCain gave energy executives what they needed to
get more solidly in his corner -- a pledge to reverse a federal policy that
has frustrated the industry for years.
"I think people thought it was a sensible thing that was long due," West
said. "I think the industry was very appreciative."
************
McSame was just bought like a whore.
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/obamas_oil_spill.html
http://opensecrets.org/pres08/select.php?ind=E01
According to this Obama got over $300,000.00 from the oil and gas industry, I guess he's a cheaper whore.
posted by JeepMaker on Jul 29, 2008 at 01:34:46 am #