We asked last week why Sen. John McCain, a guy who prides himself on a reputation as a "reformer" would attend a fundraiser that Ralph Reed -- buddy of Abramoff who profitted handsomely off the corrupt lobbyist's tribal casino scam -- helped pull together.

The New York Times addresses Mssrs. McCain and Obama on the subject of bundling advising both should pledge to make it a priority to rein in the practice should be elected President. The Times goes a step further and says that while addressing bundling is important, full public financing of campaigns should be the ultimate goal.

Um, if your campaign is taking heat for being run and financed by a large circle of lobbyists, it's perhaps not the best idea to get Ralph Reed, FOA (Friend of Abramoff) Extraordinaire, to host a fundraiser for you. And yet, that's what Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is doing.

The story of Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) conveniently timed contributions from the oil industry gets another rather odd chapter today, courtesy of this story in the Washington Post which details why the McCain campaign was forced to return $50,000 in contributions bundled by oil executive Harry Sergeant III.

The donors whose checks Sergeant bundled seemed like decidedly non-traditional donors:

Public Campaign Action Fund's Campaign Money Watch project debuted a new website today. McCain's Lobbyists analyzes data from the Center for Responsive Politics to show the vast amount of money lobbyists and their clients have poured into McCain's campaign, and how donations from the clients of lobbyists tied to the McCain campaign have influenced policy. Click on a lobbyist to see how money goes both ways.

There's more coverage on Public Campaign Action Fund's Campaign Money Watch report on the money Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has taken for his presidential campaign from the oil industry, and how it coincided with key policy statements on offshore oil drilling.

Talking Points Memo has covered the findings of the report, specifically the donations from the Hess Corporation and Hess family:

The oil industry is reporting record profits as consumers empty their wallets at the pump, so why is Senator John McCain (R-AZ) suddenly backing policies like offshore oil drilling that do nothing to help gas prices today (or the environment tomorrow), but stand to make Big Oil a handsome profit down the road?

Public Campaign Action Fund's project, Campaign Money Watch, has been doing extensive research into Senator John McCain's (R) recent reversal on the offshore oil drilling ban, and what a flood of contributions from the oil industry may have had to do with it.

The Washington Post is doing a series all this week on the oil situation: rising demand, rising prices, environmental concerns, the whole messy debacle. Right next to the first article in that series was this piece about some fishy timing around Sen. John McCain's (R) reversal on the offshore oil drilling ban, and an influx of campaign contributions from the oil industry.

Research done by Public Campaign Action Fund's Campaign Money Watch project has revealed that though the candidates in this year's presidential race may be different than in years past, the big donors sure aren't -- at least when it comes to the migration of President Bush's best bundlers to the donor rolls of Sen. John McCain's campaign.