We know that communication giant AT&T wields incredible political clout at virtually every level of government, but even we were awestruck by a story out of Indiana this week.

At a news conference at the Indiana Statehouse, AT&T officials announced plans to hire 425 people for call-center jobs in Indianapolis. Those jobs had previously been outsourced, the company explained, but had been brought back in-house and were to be located in Indianapolis as a direct result of some very AT&T-friendly legislation passed in Indiana last year.

AT&T Indiana President George Fleetwood drove home the deregulation-for-jobs arrangement in his statements at the news conference.

"We applaud all the visionary leaders that helped put Indiana at the front of a progressive telecom-reform movement that has since swept the country," said Fleetwood. "These jobs could have gone anywhere in the country. But they are here because Indiana created an environment that encourages companies like AT&T to invest."

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels was even more to the point.

"AT&T committed to invest more in Indiana, and the company is as good as its word," said Daniels. "AT&T has connected dozens of small towns across the state to the Web, and we are getting hundreds of new jobs, all the result of telecom deregulation and video reform."

Fleetwood even singled out the specific legislation that prompted the company to rain the new jobs on Indianapolis -- HB 1279. That new law basically took away the video franchising authority of local governments and reassigned it to the state.

It could also exempt AT&T and other telecommunication companies from paying video franchise fees to local governments, like those that have traditionally been levied on cable companies. AT&T also will not face requirements to build out its video networks to cover all parts of a community, not just more lucrative affluent neighborhoods.

You can read AT&T's new release on the announcement by clicking here.

We have absolutely no problem with AT&T "un-outsourcing" jobs. In fact, we would love to see many more American companies follow suit on that.

But we find it very unseemly when AT&T couches those un-outsourced jobs as a payoff for favorable legislation -- particularly legislation that could result in less protection for consumers.