Today's Fresh Blogs...

• Fred Thompson: The Money Is The Problem

  Published: August 15, 2007, 4:36 pm

  Tags: Fec, Fred Thompson, Campaign Finance, 2008 Elections, President, Ethics

  single expenditure. Can the FEC save the day?  Not really.  As the NYT notes towards the end, "Officials at the FEC said it would take action to determine that only if there were a specific complaint lodged against Mr. Thompson. And even then, the resolution of the question could take years. Guilty parties typically enter into

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• Law and Order: FEC

  Published: August 21, 2007, 2:04 pm

  Tags: Fred Thompson, Fec, 2008

  filed a complaint with the FEC (LINK HERE)  alleging Sharpton was using the "testing the waters" committee to run an "off-the-books campaign," not declaring his candidacy officially while clearly a candidate, thus avoiding disclosure rules.  The FEC investigated the matter, and arrived at a settlement with Sharpton. The FEC ruled

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• Reversing Watergate

  Published: August 22, 2007, 8:11 pm

  Tags: Watergate, Foia, Fisa, Fec, Campaign Finance, War Powers Act, Dick Cheney

  Congress amended the FECA in 1974 to set limits on contributions by individuals, political parties and PACs. The 1974 amendments also established an independent agency, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to enforce the law, facilitate disclosure and administer the public funding program. Anything else? Congressional war powers,

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• Frederick of Hollywood Announces His Announcement

  Published: August 30, 2007, 8:25 pm

  Tags: Fred Thompson, Fec, Campaign Finance, 2008 Elections

  to register with the FEC.  Takes us to October 1, 2007. And what's so special about October 1?  It's the start of a new FEC reporting quarter.   By delaying the filing of his organizational papers until books have closed on the third quarter of 2007, Thompson arguably will not have to file any disclosure reports with the

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• Bloggers Win Before the FEC

  Published: September 4, 2007, 6:31 pm

  Tags: Fec, Federal Election Commission, Campaign Finance, Daily Kos, Blogs, Michael Grace, Markos Moulitsas

  our submission before the FEC via this link.  In an abundance of caution, I opted to be thorough with this one and review the FEC's clear precedents -- if you're doing news, commentary or editorial, and you're not owned/controlled by a political candidate, party or committee, you're exempt.  The law was clear before today, and it's

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• It's Official: Blogs Are Media

  Published: September 5, 2007, 3:58 pm

  Tags: Fec, Legal, Blogging

  decisions really only affect (1) bloggers who offer free advertising to candidates and (2) people blogging about campaigns (including blogs devoted to deposing incumbents). And if you fall into one of those limited groups, you’ll be happy to note that you’re now part of the media in the eyes of the FEC. And what does that mean?

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• Action Item: Von Spakovsky is a tool..

  Published: September 24, 2007, 11:51 pm

  Tags: Partisanship In Government, Von Spakovsky, Fec

  Elections Commission (FEC) -- the body that oversees our nation's laws on financing of federal elections. But one of your Senators sits on the Rules Committee that will vote on von Spakovsky's nomination this Wednesday -- so send a message today that the Senate should reject this nomination immediately.Von Spakovsky's tenure at the

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• Von Spakovsky to slip through?

  Published: September 26, 2007, 5:25 pm

  Tags: Hans Von Spakovsky, Dianne Feinstein, Ben Nelson, Federal Election Commission, Fec

  precedent on moving FEC nominations. "The precedent is very clear," said Sen. Bob Bennett (Utah), the ranking Republican on the panel. "Nominations to the FEC have always been reported en bloc and in pairs." But Feinstein said committee rules governing FEC nominations allow only for passing nominations that have unanimous consent,

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• Fined group tied to Hillary Rodham Clinton

  Published: September 27, 2007, 3:50 pm

  Tags: Hillary Clinton In The News, Campaign Finance, News, Hillary Clinton, 2008 Presidential Election, Act, Clinton, Fec, Hillary, Ickes, News, Politics

  to the Clinton campaign. In FEC filings, the campaign listed a debt to Mr. Ickes of more than $2,000 for travel-related costs. Funded with millions of dollars from billionaire George Soros, America Coming Together (ACT) misused about $70 million in "soft money," uncapped donations that aren't supposed to be used to urge election

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• The coming Von Spakovsky debacle

  Published: September 27, 2007, 5:35 pm

  Tags: Hans Von Spakovsky, Federal Election Commission, Fec, Us Attorneys, Filibuster, Nuclear Option

  partisan hack to the FEC before, and because of that, FEC nominations usually move through the committee as a package by unanimous consent. There's no reason to object, because nominations are paired up, one Democrat to one Republican, and under a normal administration nobody quite this unsuitable for the job gets nominated. So yes,

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• Presidential Public Financing Primer

  Published: October 1, 2007, 10:16 pm

  Tags: John Edwards, Public Financing, 2008 Elections, Fec

  After the 10/15/07 FEC filing, we can guesstimate again how much he'll receive in January.  To get to the $10M goal, Edwards needs more contributions from new contributors, or from existing contributors who haven't given the full $250 yet.  (Obviously, every contribution will help him, but it's only those of $250 and below

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• More on the Von Spakovsky vote

  Published: October 4, 2007, 12:52 pm

  Tags: Hans Von Spakovsky, Fec, Federal Elections Commission, Russ Feingold, Barack Obama, Filibuster

  The Hill reports that the deal currently floating is that Von Spakovsky gets his own vote, but if he's not confirmed, there's no vote on the other three nominees at all. That amounts to another built-in, painless filibuster for the Republicans. If their voter suppression agent loses, they'll suppress the votes of the entire Senate on everyone

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• Von Spakovsky watch

  Published: October 4, 2007, 11:08 am

  Tags: Hans Von Spakovsky, Fec, Federal Election Commission, Harry Reid, Russ Feingold

  to approve all four pending FEC nominations at once, in a single vote. The argument is that previous FEC nominations have been considered that way, so this one should be, too. Such nominations are typically paired up, one Democratic nominee, one Republican. And significant opposition is rare, so the Senate has in the past saved itself some time

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• Colbert '08: Colbert Accepts Donation (Salary) from Corporate Lobbyist (Employer)

  Published: October 19, 2007, 3:17 pm

  Tags: Colbert 08, Fec, Fred Thompson, Politico, Radar, South Carolina, Stephen Colbert

  Federal Election Commission (FEC) thinks this is some huge problem, some violation of their pwecious wittle laws. You know, the same perfect laws that allow Fred Thompson to run for President of the United States of America. According to some expert on Radar yesterday, “it looks like Colbert’s getting a corporate contribution from

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• Colbert '08: Colbert Accepts Donation (Salary) from Corporate Lobbyist (Employer)

  Published: October 19, 2007, 3:17 pm

  Tags: Colbert 08, Fec, Fred Thompson, Politico, Radar, South Carolina, Stephen Colbert

  Much as it hurts to say this, Stephen Colbert could learn something about campaign law from Fred Thompson. When Thompson began fucking around with a presidential bid earlier in the year, he left Law...

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