This is my first Diary so be gentle please. While I don't relish spinning out wild accusations this floored me. I hope 'tis not redundant as I performed a search and found nothing.
John McCain reversed his long held position supporting the moratorium on offshore drilling recently under what one might consider questionable circumstances. The following is from today's Washington Post.
Industry Gushed Money After Reversal on Drilling
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."
::Jump::
Altering a candidate's policy position in response to donations from special interest groups might be unseemly under any circumstances, however, a sitting US Senator changing his position/vote on a matter that may come before the Senate in response to, or anticipation of, campaign contributions is unethical at best, and may very well be criminal.
Now I don't know and won't assert the existence of any explicit quid pro quo between the McCain camp and potential Donors but it sure does not look right. Curiouser and Curiouser.
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.
A fivefold increase? It's not like they had another horse in the race and this put McCain over the top, these were always going to be McCain's guys. Remember Hillary fundraisers trying to hold Obama/DCCC/DSCC hostage? Did they hold McCain hostage? Was there a quid pro quo?
The assertion that McCain had an abrupt change of conscience in such temporal proximity to this fund raising event featuring such a generous cast of characters bends Occam's Razor beyond the breaking point.
It's not like McCain does not have a long list of "Priors" for engaging in questionable dealings with special interests dating back over a quarter century to the days of Fife Symington and Charles Keating in his 1982 Congressional debut.
Just based on the facts asserted I think that a primae facie case could be made of the appearance of impropriety under the heading "If it quacks like a Duck". Ethics investigations could reveal whether there were inappropriate contacts between the campaign apparatus and donors to the campaign which included any assurances or promises made with regard to support for current or future legislation.
Maybe this is the way business is done and I'm just being naive, but after 7+ years of Bush/Cheney/Rove et al bartering away the welfare of the country to their cronies:
"(The)Music Must Change"