EXCLUSIVE: AT&T CEO's political donations to net neutrality opponents

As AT&T continues its battles with net neutrality proponents on Capitol Hill this week, I thought it would be interesting to see where AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre has been spending his own money this campaign and election cycle.

I went to Opensecrets.org, and checked under "Whitacre." 

I found several donations, most of them to Net Neutrality opponents.

These personal $1,000 campaign donations from the controversial and outspoken AT&T chief have been to Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas); Rep. Michael McCall (R-Texas), and Sen. John Ensign (R-Nevada). Whitacre has written $500 checks to the campaigns of Sen. George Allen (R-Virginia) and Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-New Jersey).

Whitacre has also donated $1,000 to the pro-Republican Keep Our Majority PAC, and a like amount to Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk America.

Although Whitacre's contributions are entirely legal, it remains to the observer to conclude whether Whitacre is apportioning his personal money out of a citizen's desire for good governance, or whether he is writing these checks out of a sense of kinship with those legislators whose views mirror his own. 

Maybe both?