Telecom Amnesty Flip-Floppers Got More Telecom Dollars - Via Threat Level from Wired.com :

Democrats who switched from opposing to supporting legal amnesty to telecoms that aided the government's warrantless wiretapping program received twice as much money, on average, from telcom political action groups than Democrats whose opposed the idea in March and again last Friday, according to an analysis of campaign donations by Maplight.org.

220 Democratic members of the House voted against telecom amnesty in March, when the Democrats unexpectedly rejected a Bush-backed Senate spying bill. But, 94 of those switched their vote last Friday, supporting a bill ironed out by the House leadership that expands the government's ability to conduct blanket wiretaps inside American telecom facilities and freeing those companies from the 40 or so lawsuits pending in Federal court.

Maplight.org analyzed the contributions to both sets of the Democrats and found that those who switched their votes received, on average, 40 percent more money in campaign contributions over the last three years from Sprint, Verizon and AT&T's political action committees.

On average, those who changed their votes collected $8,359 dollars from those PACs from January 2005 through March 2008, while those who did not change their opposition collected $4,987.

For all House members, including Republicans, those supporting immunity collected nearly twice as much money from those PACs than those who did not: $9,659 to $4,810.

Maplight.org was careful not to say that any member's vote was purchased, but says the correlation raises questions.

"Why did these ninety-four House members have a change of heart?" asked Daniel Newman, executive director of Maplight.org in the accompanying press release. "Their constituents deserve answers."

Larry Lessig, a Stanford professor who serves on Maplight.org's board, has argued that money corrupts, despite the fact that our current crop of politicians may be the cleanest in the nation's history.

In a March speech about his new project to drive special interest money out of politics, Lessig argued that politicians subtly align themselves with the money they have and need to raise -- much like researchers funded by drug companies internalize their benefactors' goals.

"Money corrupts the process of reasoning," Lessig said. "They get a sixth sense of how what they do might affect how they raise money."

(Read Original Article - Via Threat Level from Wired.com .)