GOP $$, IT'S OIL IN THE FAMILY

Mustafa Abu Naba'a is not a household name, for now, at least. Harry Sargeant III of Florida is a little more well known in his home state where he is the Republican finance chairman and a major player in the McCain campaign. Together however Mr. Abu Naba'a and Mr. Sargeant have become an item, politically and financially and may wind up better known than they wished. It seems that these two gentlemen are long-time business partners; in fact Mr. Sargeant is involved in a major oil trading company (he is a partner) and together they were able to bundle more than $50,000 in contributions to the McCain campaign in a very atypical way. There are some tricky parts: Mr. Naba'a is a foreign national, and many of his family members who were listed as donors (there's only so much each individual is allowed) said they didn't give. Further more they were not well off, had no intention of giving and didn't support Mr. McCain. The non-partisan Campaign Legal Center issued the opinion that foreign nationals shall not "directly or indirectly" help out in the "decision-making process" which is "election related." The McCain's lawyer said that Mr. Naba'a's bundling WAS allowed but...returned the money because in the words of their attorney Brian Rogers "it just didn't sound right to us, the whole situation." And they got caught. Kudos to Mr. Michael Luo for his NYT article on this matter and if what we passed on seems like real dry news, we'll try not to make it a habit.