Blumenthal, The Fox Watching The Hen House

When Dick Blumenthal opened his race for the U.S. Senate in 2010, he boasted “I've never taken PAC money and I have rejected all special interest money because I have stood strong and have taken legal action against many of those special interests.”

That was then.

It did not take Connecticut’s once battling Attorney General to acclimate to the ways of Congress. Roll Call reports that Mr. Blumenthal, who joined the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee at the beginning of 2013, “appears to be comfortable taking PAC contributions from communications companies that his Senate committee regulates.” Mr. Blumenthal also sits on the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet.

Nutmeg PAC, Mr. Blumenthal’s campaign committee and leadership PAC, has received PAC contributions from a long list of companies Mr. Blumenthal regulates as the people’s senator from the nutmeg state.

According to a story in the Congressional Quarterly’s Roll Call, the companies under Mr. Blumenthal’s scrutiny from which he has accepted campaign contributions include:  “AT&T Inc. Federal PAC $2,000; Comcast Corporation PAC $2,500; Cox Enterprises PAC $1,000; Echostar Corporation & Dish Network PAC $1,500; National Cable & Telecommunications Assn. PAC $5,000; National Telecommunications Cooperative Assn. Telecommunications Education Committee $1,000; News America Holdings Inc.-Fox PAC $2,000; T-Mobile USA Inc. PAC $1,000; Time Warner Inc. PAC $1,000; Universal Music Group PAC $1,000; United States Telecom Assn. PAC $1,000; Walt Disney Productions Employees PAC $1,500; among others.”