McCain to return (some) donations

Calling it a "precautionary effort," John McCain's campaign said yesterday:

...that it would return all the contributions solicited for it by the Jordanian business partner of a prominent Florida fund-raiser for Mr. McCain.

For the McCain camp, the decision caps a queasy two days in which news accounts scrutinized a cluster of more than $50,000 in unusual contributions from a single extended family of Californians, the Abdullahs, and several of their friends.  [...]

The donations came under scrutiny because of their large size and the fact that for the most part, the Abdullahs do not appear wealthy. In addition, several of them interviewed expressed indifference or even hostility to Mr. McCain’s candidacy.

All this taken together has raised the question of whether at least some of the family and their friends may have been donors in name only who were reimbursed by someone trying to skirt individual contribution limits.

It raised the question? It seems pretty clear that there is no question about the fact that a $9,200 donation from a Taco Bell manager, or another $9,200 from a man who, after first denying the donation, said of McCain:

He’s like a worse copy than Bush. I’m still not going to vote for him."

...does more than raise a question. And while the McCain campaign is still feeling queasy, perhaps they could look at the donation from the Hess Corporation office manager who decided to hang onto her 15 year old car so she could give McCain $57,000.

Update by SusanG: Marc Ambinder asks his own very interesting question about these donations:

If there were a group of questionable donations all with the name Abdullah
that were funneled through a guy in Jordan
who is a Jordanian national
who is under investigation for war profiteering
and it were Barack Obama
instead of John McCain
would this be a bigger deal?

Second update by SusanG: And another great question posed by our own Zackpunk:

So wait a minute

Does that mean this Taco Bell manager gets to keep the money being "returned" to him?

Wouldn't that be a hoot?