We’ve all been there – you’re in a remote area and cellphone coverage is lacking or sometimes non-existent. Most of us resign ourselves to being out of touch for a while.

But when you’re Cindy McCain, you get two cellphone towers built right on your property by Verizon and AT&T – two companies that have given John McCain both hundreds of thousands in campaign contributions and over a dozen lobbyist bundlers.

That’s the story, according to The Washington Post’s James V. Grimaldi, and it’s one that goes to the heart of why John McCain’s lobbyist ties are so important. The article makes it clear that the towers were completely unnecessary in terms of providing coverage, and so few people lived near them that they could never be profitable.

Of course, none of that may matter when the McCains are the customers. Why? Well, Sen. McCain has been a friend to AT&T, Verizon and other telecom giants during his service on the Senate Commerce Committee, where he is a senior member and former chairman. And it turns out that McCain and these two companies have had a healthy exchange of money and lobbyists over the years.

According to a Campaign Money Watch analysis of data from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, AT&T employees and PACs have given McCain $480,408.00 since 1989. Verizon has contributed $282,572.00. AT&T is his No. 3 all-time contributor; Verizon is No. 11.

A list of the people who have lobbied for AT&T and Verizon forms a virtual who’s-who of McCain’s campaign staff, advisors and fundraisers. They include: national finance co-chair and bundler Wayne Berman, senior advisor Charlie Black, McCain’s Senate chief of staff, Mark Buse, VP vetter A.B. Culvahouse, campaign manager Rick Davis, deputy RNC chair Frank Donatelli, deputy campaign manager Christian Ferry, congressional liaison John Green, former finance chair Tom Loeffler, mega-bundler Tim McKone, George W. Bush national finance chair Jack Oliver and transition team head William Timmons.

In total, AT&T has paid nearly $20.9 million in lobbying fees to lobbyists now connected to McCain’s campaign, with Verizon paying just over $7 million. Those same lobbyists have bundled $600,000 for McCain.

The best way to illustrate these many, many connections is to visit our home page – click on one of the lobbyists mentioned above to see just how complicated this web (with McCain at the center) really is.

All those connections appear to have helped the McCains get good cellphone reception, even though AT&T and Verizon had to navigate through plenty of red tape to do it. That they’re willing to do such favors for McCain suggests they might expect a lot from him if he were elected to the White House. With so many of their lobbyists in McCain’s orbit, they’d definitely have reason to be hopeful.

The Washington Post’s Matthew Mosk takes a hard look this morning at the fundraising race, noting that McCain has made good use of his joint committee with the RNC — an entity that allow donors to write checks up to $70,000. Moreover, McCain and the RNC have been working together on “hybrid ads,” those that “purport to advance the cause of his campaign and the fortunes of other Republicans … with the only requirement being that the ads mention, in some fashion, other elements of the GOP ticket.”

The DHL-UPS merger, which threatens to put thousands of Ohio jobs on the chopping block, is back in the news. The story made headlines earlier this year when it was reported that McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, had lobbied in favor of an earlier merger between DHL and Airborne Express, and that another campaign advisor, John Green, was a lobbyist for UPS. Marilyn Geewax of the The Columbus Dispatch reports this morning that Rep. JIm Oberstar (D-MN) believes the DHL-UPS deal violates anti-trust law. ” “It’s called price squeezing. … Competition will be reduced; prices will go up,” he said

And Congressional Quarterly reports that at least 250 lobbyists failed to properly report their campaign contributions, while more than 900 “failed to file their first mid-year reports by the deadline of July 30. Hundreds were submitted more than a week past the due date, without penalty.”

Wednesday’s Washington Post story about McCain bundler Harry Sargeant III continues to resonate within both the traditional media and the blogosphere. The New York Times’ Michael Luo follows up on the story, focusing on Sargeant’s business partner, Mustafa Abu Naba’a. Abu Naba’a appears to be the driving force behind donations from some unlikely sources, including a man who called John McCain “a worse copy than Bush.”

As Talking Points Memo’s Greg Sargent and Eric Kleefeld have noted, Sargeant’s company has a contract to supply fuel to U.S. military in Iraq – a contract won due to the company’s ability to ship the fuel through Jordan. Turns out one of Sargeant’s former business partners is the brother-in-law of the King of Jordan. On top of that, that same business partner is now suing Sargeant and Abu Naba’a, claiming he didn’t get his fair share of profits from the deal. (News that something shady may have been taking place was noted as early as May, by NBC.)

Also ensnared in the story is Florida Gov. (and potential VP pick) Charlie Crist, The St. Petersburg Times’ Wes Allison and Steve Bousquet note. And guess who first arranged a meeting between McCain and Sargeant? None other than Brian Ballard, one of our featured lobbyists.

The pending DHL-UPS deal also remains in the news. The local paper in Wilmington, Ohio, which stands to lose at least 8,000 jobs if the deal goes through, says McCain is taking the issue “seriously.” Serious enough to tell us whether his congressional liaison (and former UPS lobbyist) John Green is coloring his judgment? We’ll see… though his meeting with workers who stand to lose their jobs will be behind closed doors, according to the Dayton Daily News.

Finally, lest you think that money’s influence in politics extends only to one side of the aisle, Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi has a sobering reminder that the problem is a bipartisan one. Barack Obama may not be surrounded by a web of lobbyists, but he’s no stranger to big-money donors who expect something in return.

Heard or read anything else you think deserves our attention? Send it to the Tipline!

Campaign Money Watch has just posted a new factsheet on the involvement of John McCain and three of his lobbyists — Rick Davis, Christian Ferry and John Green — in the pending deal between DHL and UPS that would result in the loss of at least 8,000 jobs at a DHL facility in Ohio.

It turns out that both Davis and Ferry lobbied for DHL’s German parent company. John Green lobbied for both DHL and, much more recently, UPS, which stands to gain the most from the pending deal with its rival.

Most importantly, the factsheet raises the question: “How can McCain impartially investigate anti-trust issues when his top advisors recently earned more than $1 million from the companies involved to help them make the type of deal that is under scrutiny today?”