Posted on 04/30/2008 1:52:03 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Barack Obama's presidential campaign wants federal regulators to investigate fellow Democrats who are backing Hillary Rodham Clinton's candidacy, taking intraparty discord to a new level of confrontation.
Obama's campaign lawyer, Robert Bauer, filed a complaint Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission, accusing the pro-Clinton American Leadership Project of violating campaign finance laws by running ads against Obama.
The group is largely financed by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and is run by Democratic operatives, many of them based in California and who have past connections to Clinton or her husband. Its organizers say they are abiding by the law and a 2007 Supreme Court ruling.
Bauer, in his complaint and in a teleconference with reporters, likened the group to organizations that had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for ad campaigns in the 2004 presidential election. Among them was the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which attacked Democrat John Kerry's service in Vietnam and his subsequent anti-war stance.
"This organization is a Swift Boat wannabe and it's violating the law in exactly the same way," Bauer said.
The Supreme Court in 2007 opened the door for organizations to air issue ads that mention political candidates, as long as they did not explicitly call for their election or defeat. The FEC followed up with a regulation that gave outside groups more latitude to run ads during elections.
"We have strictly and carefully adhered to every governing law and regulation, including the content of our communications and our full and timely disclosures," said ALP Chairman Jason Kinney, a California Democratic strategist.
Bauer said the Supreme Court decision has been a "source of a great deal of confusion — the confusion that this organization is trying to take advantage of."
Complicating matters is the FEC's lack of a quorum to act on any investigation or regulatory matter. The six-member commission has four vacancies. Bauer asked the FEC that if it is "unable to act expeditiously" it refer the case to the Justice Department.
The American Leadership Project has run more than $1.7 million in ads, either supporting Clinton's positions on issues or criticizing Obama's stands. The latest ad — $700,000 worth of air time in Indiana — raises questions about Obama's economic policies.
"Call Barack Obama and tell him to give Hoosiers a real plan to fix our economy," the ad states.
At issue is the complicated array of federal regulations governing who can say what and how during an election campaign. Candidates, party committees and political action committees, which may only accept restricted contributions, can run ads that call for the election or defeat of a candidates.
Groups that don't organize as political action committees can raise money in unlimited contributions from donors, but they cannot run ads that "expressly advocate" for or against a candidate. These groups have organized either as nonprofit, tax exempt groups or as so-called 527 organizations, which are named after the section of the tax code that permits their existence.
The American Leadership Project is a 527 organization.
Oh, dude. Dude.
There isn't enough popcorn in the whole wide WORLD for this, ultimately. ;)
Especially when the contestants are two people I despise and they keep hitting each other until blood flows.
I blame ethanol production for the shortage in the supply of popcorn. ‘Course as we all know the Obama-Hillary slugfest has sharply increased demand...
Call the waaaahhhhhhmbulance. What’s the matter Barack Hussein Obama? Playground getting too rough for you.
And how sweeeetttt it is, Dad!
THE AUDACITY OF TRUTH - BLACK LIBERATION THEOLOGY AND OBAMA'S CHURCH
THE AUDACITY OF TRUTH - OBAMA'S CIRCLE OF FRIENDS AND SUPPORT
THE AUDACITY OF TRUTH - BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA
C H A O S
BRILLIANT photoshop! Your own work...? ;)
Obama's inexperience at running a Presidential campaign seems to be symptomatic of a much broader disability.
As we were saying yesterday, you simply can't make this stuff up. But, no matter, my popcorn supply is in good shape. I'm a goin' poppin' :)
First I have heard of this.
Thanks. Yes, it's mine. It's half of a set of two:
Very offensive using her middle name but not Obama's, whatever his is?
LOL.
Hillary’s middle name is Diane.
Get in line.
Her complete name was Hillary Diane Rodham? Hmmm... you learn something new every day...
Barry shut your whining elitist metrosexual trap. Politics is a man’s game not for pansies like you. Hillary understands that why can’t you?
She has his FBI record.
Nah - his passport file documenting his activities in Pakistan...
Hillary is for AFL-CIO Unions, but so is the NAACP, Obama's backers.
“There isn’t enough popcorn in the whole wide WORLD for this, ultimately. ;) “
It almost makes this entire fiasco worth it, doesn’t it? :<)
Isn’t the FEC a few people short of a full mess because of Obama trying to hamstring McCain?
Named after the late Princess Diane, no doubt.
Historians will be penning scholarly, in-depth tomes painstakingly examining the behavioral minutiae of this election for the next one hundred and fifty years. Minimum. ;)
All of hillary’s dirty campaign tricks, past and present, are about to by aired for the public to see.
Too bad our so-called justice department will never indict this Marxist thug.
Your work makes Sweet Hillary look so much more slender and feminine than she really is.
This is one of the very few times I aree with Obama. Hillary has gotten away with too much.
aree = agree
Which one is ACORN going to CHEAT for???
Too bad the “Demonrat” controlled senate has emasculated the Federal Elections commission so they do not even have enough members for a quorum thus will not be investigating anything in the near future.
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