“Out of this meeting came the compromise between the two Senators on the exchange legislation,” Ruskin told Mosk in a letter, available here. “This became S.849 and in it, McCain included numerous protections for the Verde River, but ones that were acceptable to me and the cities involved.” When McCain spoke about this bill on the Senate floor he noted that staff from Sen. Domenici (R.-N.M) and Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D.-N.M.) offices were involved in drafting those provisions.

Similarly, Rogers told the Post McCain introduced the bill “at the request of the U.S. Forest Service, as well as many Northern Arizona communities…to improve the management of forest lands and conservation of natural resources. The legislation also provided communities with an opportunity to acquire land needed for economic development, community services and open space.”

Although the title of Mosk’s story is titled “McCain Pushed Land Swap that Benefits Backer” nothing shows McCain was aware Betts’s company, SunCor, would later buy the land from Ruskin. And, according to campaign finance records Ruskin has never donated money to McCain. (Ruskin has, however, donated money to the Arizona Republican party and Senator Kyl, among other candidates.)

“SunCor had not remotely entered the picture at the time Sen McCain decided to support the exchange, and it was to be another eighteen months before they actually invested in the ranch,” Ruskin’s letter to Mosk stated.

In fact, when Mosk interviewed Betts, Betts told Mosk there was “absolutely no” connections between his contributions to McCain’s campaign and purchase. On behalf of McCain, spokesman Rogers said “at no time during the consideration of this legislation was there any involvement with SunCor.”

Although Mosk’s story made no definitive link between Betts’s campaign donations and McCain’s senatorial work, liberal anti-McCain blogs were eager to link it to the Keating Five scandal McCain was implicated in many years ago.

“Now, is this is a major scandal?” asked the liberal Talking Points Memo in their wrap-up of the Post story. “No. But like The New York Times' story last month, it shows McCain delivering for a campaign contributor in a way that belies his claim that he underwent a Road to Damascus conversion after the Keating Five scandal.”

AmericaBlog wrote, “Funny thing: The legislation for the land swap did pass thanks to McCain. Even funnier thing: One of the biggest fundraisers for McCain ended up getting the contract to build the development… Funny how these things happen. Starts to become clearer and clearer how McCain did get himself wrapped up with Charles Keating after all.”