Did ill-gotten stock gains pay for Bush smears on Kerry and McCain?

We had never heard of the billionaire Wyly brothers of Texas until we spent a day following George W. Bush across New York State on the chilly weekend before Super Tuesday in 2000. While we there, last-minute ads by a group with the oxymoronical name of "Republicans for Clean Air" started appearing on the TV. They showed sooty smokestacks and accused chief rival John McCain of opposing clean energy while praising Bush's record in Texas, the same record that most full-time environmentalists had found appalling.

It may have been the last time that W. pretended to tack to the political left, but he won that New York showdown and McCain was effectively out of the race. The Wylys, Sam and Charles, paid $2.5 million to rush those ads on the air -- pocket change for investors who'd made $4.4 billion selling a software company and had formed another company paid big bucks to invest the University of Texas' money right after their friend Bush became governor.