Should anyone be surprised? When you here a longtime Washington insider say he switched his position on offshore drilling due to altruistic reasons, due to concern for the American People. Then -gee, golly, gosh- We find him at luncheons courting oil executives and raising millions of dollars. M

Industry Gushed Money After Reversal on Drilling

By Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 27, 2008; Page A10

Industry Gushed Money After Reversal on Drilling - washingtonpost.com

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."

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Multiple Oil Company Executives Gave Huge Contributions To Electing McCain Just Days After Offshore Drilling Reversal

By Greg Sargent and Eric Kleefeld - August 4, 2008, 12:47PM

Ten senior Hess Corporation executives and/or members of the Hess family each gave $28,500 to the joint RNC-McCain fundraising committee, just days after McCain reversed himself to favor offshore drilling, according to Federal Election Commission reports.

Nine of these contributions, seven from Hess executives and two from members of the Hess family, came on the same day, June 24th, the records show. The total collected in the wake of McCain's reversal for the fund, called McCain Victory 2008, from Hess execs and family is $285,000.

We were alerted to the contributions by Campaign Money Watch, a non-partisan group that tracks campaign contributions. The contributions were given a quick mention deep in a report the group issued late last week, but with no names or other details provided. The Hess contributions are clearly newsworthy on their own.

The Washington Post reported last week that campaign contributions from oil industry execs rose in a big way in the last half of June, after McCain drew a huge amount of attention by reversing his opposition on June 16th to the federal ban on offshore drilling.

These Hess contributions, however, hadn't been reported until now, and they will give more ammo to those arguing that McCain is being rewarded by campaign contributions in exchange for pro-industry positions. Here's a table detailing the contributions:

J. Barclay Collins Hess Corp. Attorney $28,500 19-Jun
John B. Hess Hess Corp. Executive $28,500 24-Jun
Susan K. Hess Homemaker Homemaker $28,500 24-Jun
Norma W. Hess Retired Retired $28,500 24-Jun
John J. O'Connor Hess Corp. Executive $28,500 24-Jun
Lawrence Ornstein Hess Corp. Senior VP $28,500 24-Jun
John Reilly Hess Corp. Executive $28,500 24-Jun
Alice Rocchio Hess Corp. Office Manager $28,500 24-Jun
John Scelfo Hess Corp. Senior VP of Finance $28,500 24-Jun
F. Borden Walker Hess Corp. Businessman $28,500 24-Jun


Norma W. Hess is the widow of oil magnate and company founder Leon Hess, and Susan K. Hess is the wife of Hess chairman and CEO John Hess.

Neither a spokesperson for Hess nor the McCain campaign immediately responded to requests for comment. More on this in a bit.

Late Update: It turns out that $28,500 is the maximum that can be given to the RNC, but because this particular victory fund collects money via various channels, an individual donor can actually give more than that to it. I've edited out "maximum" from the headline. Obviously this doesn't change the story in any way.

Late Late Update: A Hess office manager and her husband, an Amtrak worker, each chipped in $28,000 apiece, too.

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Employees are free to give their money to whoever they wish without being tied to the company that they work for.

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Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

George/John W McCain/Bush

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$28,500 sure sounds like a familiar number. Oopsie, it the maximum you can give as an individual due to campaign election laws. So how people get around that law is the donate the maximum for themselves, for their wives, for each child, for each employee, etc... And the giveaway is everyone is donating the maxium allowed for one individual.

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Clearly, you are playing into the Dean strategy to divert attention from the issues.

You do know that Obama suddenly had an epiphany over the weekend regarding offshore drilling as well, right?

And by the way, you're beginning to sound like a fanatic not to be taken seriously.

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Carolina Politics Online

Sam

So what's your point Michael? Offshore and inland domestic drilling is the only feasible solution to energy costs given the amount of time needed to implement "green" (meaning less-effective) energy alternatives. Wind gets major lobbying too; see T. Boone Pickens, who is HEAVILY invested in wind energy (hence his "public service" campaigns advocating wind power). Nuclear won't make it so long as the unreasonable eco-idiots choose to ignore nuclear's environmental non-impact (plus it'll take years for companies to start these reactors up given all of the unnecessary regulation).

Oil companies gave money to candidates who supported offshore drilling........so? The Brady handgun control crowd (the idiots who think gun control is a good idea) spend millions every year on candidates who oppose the Constitution. Companies that deal oversees give money to free-trade advocates, the evangelical weirdos give money to pro-life candidates, and so the list continues. The fact that OIL companies want greater access to oil and are willing to back politicians to get to it does not make the idea of domestic oil producion any less practical, nor does it in any way make a politician corrupt. Now if you can prove that the listed office-holders made decisions IN ORDER to receive contributions, then you've got a case.

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"Bring me that horizon".

EEEYYYYAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

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"Oh, bother", said Pooh, as he chambered another round...

The point was bllionaires donate huge amounts of money through multiple persons to influence elections and government afterward.

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They're allowed, and should be allowed to do more than current election laws permit. It's a sad day when we as a country are forced to limit the amount of money a campaign can receive per person for fear that they might BUY an election because our VOTERS are too lazy to properly educate themselves and make sound decisions. If you want to stop the Congress from whoring themselves out for campaign contributions, give them an electorate that isn't swayed by fancy television ads and identity politics.

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"Bring me that horizon".