Once again, Exxon Mobil made U.S. corporate profit history, pulling in $11.68 billion in second quarter income, the highest quarterly profit rate of any U.S. company in history.
It must be gratifying for Sen. John McCain to know that his sudden flip-flop to support Big Oil’s long-held dream of offshore drilling is tapping into some of the deepest pockets on the planet. Because right after he reversed his long-standing opposition to oil drilling, he hit a gusher of campaign funds from the oil and gas industry.
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’s gambit to stock up his faltering fundraising struck a rich vein. As the Post continues:
“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.”
The Public Campaign Action Fund has issued a new report detailing Big Oil contributions to McCain. Check it out here.
Offshore drilling is one of many recent flip-flops by the senator from Arizona.
- First McCain opposed torture, now he doesn’t.
- McCain long opposed Bush’s tax cuts to the wealthy—until he realized along the campaign trail that wealthy people are where the funds are. Now tax cuts for the wealthy are the centerpiece of his domestic policy agenda.
And, oh, surprise:
- McCain strongly opposes a windfall-tax on oil company profits. Three weeks earlier, he was perfectly comfortable with the idea.
(Get lot more McFlip-flops at Carpetbagger here. And check out Bill Press’ ongoing “101 Reasons to Vote Against John McCain.”) Also, stop by at McCain Revealed, where you can download fact sheets on a gamut of McCain’s policy positions on working family issues like the economy, health care, retirement security and more.
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