Especially if you don't know exactly what position they were lobbing for when slipping the good congressman an envelope full of election cash. Even though the OP has been very economical with the facts, I'm willing to bet Google wasn't arguing in favor of SOPA.

For the young and innocent, this is how it works: Congressman X needs cash to keep his seat, and decides to do something to upset the balance of power in a given industry. Given industry freaks out. Potential winners and losers both flood his office with money, trying to accelerate or forestall the impending act. Congressman X profits handsomely.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

After playing this delightful game long enough to rack up a decent number of wins for any given industry, Mr. X can count on delayed payback in the form of a million dollar salary as a lobbyist for the same industries he used to "regulate".

Revolving Door 101.

Not just that, but these donations have all been made prior to SOPA becoming an issue so there's really no legitimate reason to make any connection here.

To draw an analogy, the CIA once supported Osama Bin Laden before September 11, 2001. We don't blame the CIA for what happened to us, do we?

> these donations have all been made prior to SOPA becoming an issue so there's really no legitimate reason to make any connection here.

What proves that bribing politicians is an endless game.

> To draw an analogy, the CIA once supported Osama Bin Laden before September 11, 2001. We don't blame the CIA for what happened to us, do we?

What do you mean with "blame"? Of course the CIA didn't plan 9/11, but was it smart to support such an assassin as Osama bin Laden? Was it smart to support Saddam Hussein? The list of mass killers supported but the CIA is endless. No wonder some of them end attacking us.

Dragging this point up could make Google uncomfortable donating to this person again, and through this perhaps make him to not support random bills of highly questionable nature next time around. It doesn't matter if it were just $1, it's the publicity that matters.

SOPA/PIPA could add costs for Google and thus interfere with their business and seeing that congressman Smith doesn't miss an opportunity to openly bash Google for opposing his plants: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111201/14195416946/lamar-...

I think it's safe to assume that he's not going to see a penny from them again, but Hollywood's contributions will more than make up for it anyway.