In telco amnesty battle, money did the talking

A vote in favor of telco amnesty for those companies that aided and abetted the government in its wireless wiretapping program was worth more than a vote against, it appears. Dems who switched their “Nay” votes got twice as much money, on average, from telcom political action groups than their more principled brethren, a report from Maplight.org shows.

The organization says of the 220 Democratic House members who voted against telecom amnesty in March, 94 switched their vote last month freeing telcos from 40 lawsuits pending in Federal court.

Maplight.org says “switchers” 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.

"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."

For more:
See the story at Privacy Digest
And the story at Wired

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