Oil, That Is... Black Gold... Texas Tea

A funny little story has been unfolding over at Talking Points Memo today...

First TPM reported that the day after John McCain reversed his position on offshore drilling, ten executives (and/or family members) at Hess Oil gave $28,500 each to the RNC/John McCain fundraising committee (a.k.a. McCain Victory 2008).

Then, later, TPM reported that the donations are trickling in from down the Hess employee line a bit. A Hess "office manager" and her husband (an Amtrak "track foreman") were on the list of those who gave $28,500 each to the McCain Victory 2008. When reached by phone, the employee insisted that the donation was hers and hers alone (and her husband's), that she loves McCain, and that no one can guess what their "real income" is.

A little while later, TPM found out that the couple rents their home in Flushing (i.e. they don't own their own home).

And then, just because it's awesome, TPM put the median household income for Flushing on view: $58,069. (That last link takes you to a statistics page, not further reporting from TPM.)

Because TPM is tenacious, they then reported that an Amtrak "track foreman" will make a maximum of $119,000, but that the employee in question likely makes between $50,000 and $90,000.

Finally, TPM added this:

Late Update: In fairness, the Rocchios may be better off than initial appearances would suggest. Real estate records show they purchased a North Carolina property in 2006, and in 2007 took out a loan to buy another property in Scottsdale, Arizona.

But for a while there I was enjoying imagining this couple with $1,069 for the rest of their year's expenses.

Nope, John McCain isn't beholden to the oil industry. And nope, there's nothing at all dirty about these donations. Nope. Not at all. Nothing to see here, folks.