CAMPAIGN FINANCING MAKES FOR SOME STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

As researched through various venues, including the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times.

Rep. Henry Waxman has initiated a review of a defense contract for the transportation of fuel to the U.S. military in Iraq. The review will not only target billing "irregularities," but also how the firm involved, International Oil Trading Co. won the contract despite not being the low bidder. IOTC holds many lucrative defense contracts with the Defense department, which could total to a cool billion dollars. In response, the defense department has stated "IOTC won the contract because it was the only company with a "letter of authorization" from the Jordanian government to move fuel across Jordan and into Iraq."

Not interesting? Guess again. IOTC's principal owner is one Mr. Harry Sargeant III, a prolific bundler of campaign funds for Florida Governor Charlie Christ (as well as a former Christ fraternity brother and close friend), and John McCain. Sargeant has even gone so far as fly McCain in his private plane, and hold a lavish fundraiser for McCain at his palatial mansion in Delray Beach, Florida, in the Boca Raton area.

Not only has his IOTC been called on the carpet for over billing the military and listing questionable donors in his bundles of campaign cash to McCain and the Republican National Committee (one such questionable donation was $60,000.00 from an office manager of the Hess Oil company and her husband, an Amtrak foreman), he has come under fire for collecting very large donations from people who are so uninterested in politics that they haven't even bothered to register to vote. Curious indeed.

When asked about Sargeant, Governor Crist was quoted as saying, "I am not surprised, but am certainly grateful for his, and his family's efforts. I anticipate Sargeant assisting McCain, not only in additional fundraising, but as an advisor on military affairs and the economy." Another such "advisor" is another employee of IOTC, the former terrorism expert and former chief of the CIA's Bin Ladin investigation unit. Sargeant has gone on record as saying this person has been invaluable in the creation of a vast network of donors, many of which are either in the oil industry, or have ties to the Middle East.

In fairness, it should be pointed out that Mr. Sargeant has not only served as a fundraiser to McCain and Crist, but also to New York's Rudy Guiliani and Hillary Clinton, although to a much smaller extent.