Part of the interest comes from what they didn't say as well as what they did.

The article is Global Crossing Became a Top Contributor Fast and it discusses how the company came out of no where to become one of the top political donors in Washington.

The article mentions how Senator McCain (R-AZ) was the top recipient of Global Crossing money. This is of course the same Senator McCain who calls for campaign finance reform and was the only Republican in the "Keating Five." I wonder why Senator McCain doesn't just refuse to accept these donations when he seems to have such a problem with them. It's as if he's crying out "Stop me before I sin again!"

There is another little tidbit that's interesting if you know the background. The article states:

"Faced with the challenge from three of the world's largest telecommunications firms, Global Crossing filed an antitrust complaint with the U.S. Justice Department and asked the Federal Communications Commission to block the three long-distance carriers from building the undersea link.

It also signed up Anne Bingaman, a former assistant attorney general at the Justice Department, as their chief lobbyist on the issue. Between January and June 1999, Global Crossing paid Bingaman $2.5 million, according to the company's lobbying records. At the same time, Global Crossing solicited letters of support from several lawmakers, including McCain.

However, the undersea project of Sprint and its partners was completed after the FCC gave its approval and the Justice Department closed its antitrust inquiry."

What it doesn't state is that Anne Bingaman is the wife of Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM). It also leaves out the part about how the Clinton had issued an executive order early in his administration forbidding Executive Branch employees from leaving government employment and becoming lobbyists for 5 years (a rule he revoked in his final days in office).

Now, it's possible that Anne Bingaman might've violated Clinton's executive order. Maybe she did, maybe she didn't. I suppose it depends on your definition of "senior officials." I find it interesting that the article failed to identify that she is married to Senator Bingaman. I've read quite a few articles that pointed out how Senator Graham's wife was on the Enron board of directors. None of them had any trouble linking her to her Senator husband. Funny how they didn't mention it when the Senator happens to be a Democrat. Couldn't possibly be bias, now could it?