"Completely Absurd"

From today’s (7-28-08) Boston Globe (p. A4):

Campaign contributions from oil industry executives to John McCain rose dramatically in the last half of June, after the senator from Arizona made a high-profile spit with environmentalists and reversed his opposition to the federal ban on offshore drilling.
Oil and gas industry executives and employees donated $1.1 million to McCain last month—three quarters of which came after his June 16 speech calling for an end to the ban—compared with $116,000 in March, $283,000 in April and $208,000 in May….
McCain delivered the speech before heading to Texas for a series of fund-raisers with energy industry executives, and the day after the speech he raised $1.3 million at a private luncheon and reception at the San Antonio Country Club.

Of course, the two are completely unrelated:

Brian Rogers, a McCain campaign spokesman, said he considers any suggestion that McCain weighted fund-raising into his calculation on drilling policy ‘completely absurd.’

I agree. What has this country come to when a man can't transparently pander to confused voters with misguided energy policies without the media playing the money card?