McCain Beholding to Telecom Industry?

Source: "List of McCain Fund-Raisers Includes Prominent Lobbyists,"
By MICHAEL LUO and SARAH WHEATON, The New York Times, April 21, 2008.

Senator McCain has released a list of the "bundlers" who have brought in at least $100,000 each in donations to his campaign. The New York Times analysis includes the following text:

the potential for conflicts of interest are obvious. Several of Mr. McCain’s top fund-raisers, for example, lobby for the telecommunications industry, which regularly does business before the Senate Commerce Committee, where Mr. McCain is a senior member and once served as chairman.

Kirk Blalock, of the lobbying firm Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock, leads Mr. McCain’s young professional group and has raised over $250,000 for him; his clients include Sprint Nextel and Viacom.

Kyle McSlarrow, chief of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, the lobbying arm for the cable industry, has raised over $100,000 for Mr. McCain. He and others in the cable industry recently butted heads with Mr. McCain over a proposal that would allow customers to pick and choose which channels they received.

In an interview Sunday, Wayne Berman, who is deputy finance chairman of the McCain campaign and a veteran lobbyist whose clients include Verizon and Verizon Wireless, dismissed the notion that some lobbyists might be raising money for Mr. McCain to curry influence.

Comment: If you believe Berman, I have some great investment ideas for you. How about the investing in the Capital Building? Woops, Berman beat me to it! JAD