by Will Evans

The American Future Fund's new ad may not mention the Republican presidential nominee by name, but it sure echoes a McCain refrain.

The ad, which is scheduled to run on national cable for a week, promotes oil drilling as the solution to high gas prices. Set to ominous background music, it ends with this message: "Explore for energy. Right here. Right now."

That's pretty similar to McCain's new slogan: "We're going to drill here and we're going to drill now!"

But McCain can't claim credit for the catchy phrase — he stole it from Newt Gingrich and his 527 group, American Solutions for Winning the Future. American Solutions got funding this year from Peabody Energy ($250,000) and conservative mega-donors Sheldon Adelson ($1.5 million), Carl Lindner ($400,000), and Harlan Crow ($250,000).

Gingrich, incidentally, just announced a new song for the movement, entitled "Drill Here Drill Now."

So there you go. From an outside group (American Solutions) to a presidential candidate to an outside group (American Future Fund), a rallying cry is born.