...The non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics (OpenSecrets.org) said yesterday, "The campaign to elect a new president and members of Congress is on pace to hit an unprecedented $5.3 billion." However, "[t]he cost of the presidential race alone -- a record $2.4 billion -- is less than the $2.6 billion Coca-Cola spent on advertising in 2006."...

...And finally: Fox News's Bill O'Reilly sat down with the ladies of "The View" yesterday, attempting to anger Joy Behar by calling Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) a "Communist." (He then later downgraded the label to "socialist.") During the segment, O'Reilly claimed that the only reason MSNBC's Keith Olbermann dislikes him is because he's "jealous," and said that he hopes Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) comes on his show because he has "outfits she can wear." Watch the segment here.

Published on Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (http://www.citizensforethics.org)

CREW wants FEC to determine legality of RNC"s spending on clothes for Sarah Palin

By crew

Created 23 Oct 2008 - 10:00am

There has been an enormous amount of coverage and commentary concerning the $150,000 spent by the Republican National Committee (RNC) on clothes for Sarah Palin. CREW looks at this solely through the prism of whether or not this action was legal. As Melanie Sloan told the New York Daily News [1], we want the FEC to determine if this spending on personal items violated the law:

Even if it was legal for the Republican National Committee to drop $150,000 at Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Macy's and Bloomingdale's, it went against the spirit of the campaign finance law John McCain championed in the Senate, legal experts said.

"The McCain-Feingold law of 2002 specifically banned the use of campaign funds to purchase clothing," said lawyer Brett Kappel. Larry Noble, another Washington lawyer, agreed: "McCain-Feingold was the first statute that prohibited the use of campaign money for clothing."

The Republican National Committee, however, insists a loophole allowed it to spend the money to try to turn the already attractive hockey mom into a cosmopolitan runway model.

Unrepentant McCain campaign insiders insisted that it was smart, too.

"She's a middle-class woman from Alaska who dressed that way," an unapologetic top McCain adviser said. "Somebody needed to spruce her up for national television."

Melanie Sloan of the legal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said it would file a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission as early as today to seek a ruling on the legality.

"The reality is it won't be decided before the election, so it may be more of a political issue than a legal issue," Noble added.

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Source URL:
http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/34807

Links:
[1] http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/10/22/2008-10-22_republicans_try_to_defend_campaign_money.html