Surprise! Obama Was Top Recipient of BP Donations in 2008

No wonder it took him nearly two weeks before getting on the ball with the Gulf oil spill. He's the top recipient of British Petroleum donations in the last election cycle. Now watch him demonize them every chance he gets. If he wants to lead by example, he should return their money.

During the 2008 election cycle, individuals and political action committees associated with BP -- a Center for Responsive Politics' "heavy hitter" -- contributed half a million dollars to federal candidates. About 40 percent of these donations went to Democrats. The top recipient of BP-related donations during the 2008 cycle was President Barack Obama himself, who collected $71,000.

BP regularly lobbies on Capitol Hill, as well. In 2009, the company spent a massive $16 million to influence legislation. During the first quarter of 2010, it spent $3.53 million on federal lobbying efforts, ranking it second (behind ConocoPhillips) among all oil and gas industry interests.

Its registered lobbyists include a number of former federal government and high-ranking political campaign officials, including longtime political operative Tony Podesta, former congressional chief of staff Bob Brooks, former congressional legislative director David Pore and vice presidential aide Michael S. Berman, the Center's research shows.

Tony Podesta, of course, is the brother of former Clinton White House Chief of Staff John Podesta, who also helped launch the far-left smear merchant outfit Media Matters.

Of course the $71,000 Obama received from BP is chump change compared to what he got from Goldman Sachs, so don't expect him to be returning any of it. Nor should you expect any of his media lapdogs to mention his BP connection.

You suppose if something this disastrous happened under Bush's watch the media would be reticent to mention the company's donations to the "oil man" Bush? Fuhgeddaboutit. It would be a 24/7 talking point until your ears bled.

Funny how Podesta's boys at Media Matters haven't noticed any of this, huh?

How To Attract Foreign Investment

The Soviets Russians are busy re-writing the rules regarding foreign investment in that model republic.

The Russian government is pressing a bold strategy this spring to secure for Gazprom, the state natural gas company, a monopoly on exports of the fuel to Asia.

In the latest onslaught, Moscow is threatening one of the crown jewels of BP's global investments: the Kovykta gas field. And it is using methods similar to those deployed last fall to force Royal Dutch Shell to sell a controlling stake in another Far Eastern Russian energy development, the Sakhalin-2 project. In that case, too, Gazprom was the beneficiary.

On Monday, BP, which operates through a Russian joint venture, TNK-BP, moved closer to losing its license to the Kovykta field when a Siberian court declined to hear the company's arguments.

Kovykta is BP's largest natural gas project in Russia and valuable because it is within pipeline range of industrial cities in northeastern China.

At play, energy analysts say, is a Russian strategy to form a government monopoly on natural gas exports through Gazprom to Asia similar to what exists in Europe, with the scope and range to dictate prices and eliminate competition.

President Vladimir Putin has discussed playing the two markets off against each other in a grand form of haggling - though one that would depend on government control of the export routes.

That did not bode well for private energy companies operating in the country's Far East, like TNK-BP. Shell's ill-fated development, too, was aimed at the Asian market.

And some consider Putie a reformed communist.