The Party of NO Says Yes - To Prohibiting Its Own Actions
wesmorgan1I'm not kidding. From the Boston Globe/AP:
WASHINGTON—The House passed legislation Wednesday that would ban misleading mailings designed to appear they're from the Census Bureau, following criticism that Republican groups were sending fundraising letters using the census name. [...]
The legislation passed 416-0, after two Republicans who sit on the House panel overseeing the census, Rep. Darrell Issa of California and Jason Chaffetz of Utah, agreed to co-sponsor the measure. Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., has said he intends to move forward with legislation in the Senate. [...]
Earlier this year, the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP campaign arm, put out letters that were labeled "census document." The mailings made a plea for money along with a form asking voters to identify their political leanings and top issues.
The RNC appeal came in the name of GOP Chairman Michael Steele while the NRCC letter was from House GOP leader John Boehner of Ohio.
Both Republican groups on Wednesday said they would comply with the law as they had in the past. "The NRCC remains opposed to misleading mailings," said NRCC spokesman Paul Lindsay. [...]
I'm amazed that House Republicans would vote to ban one of their own fundraising techniques. They've been using it for over a decade, and it has allegedly been one of their more lucrative efforts. We received one of those "Congressional District Census" fundraising mailers, and they really did go to great lengths to make it look like an official government document ("DO NOT DESTROY - OFFICIAL DOCUMENT" was one of the touches...). I guess they couldn't afford to be seen as voting against misrepresenting the census...but this was still an odd unanimous vote to see.
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Reader Comments (3)
Odd, I get similar 'Official' fundraising stuff from democrats. Too bad nobody elected to indict Al Gore for making fundraising phone calls to the Chinese from his VP office.
And you call the 'Drudge' thread a "non-story." *snort*
You don't think it odd for a political bloc to vote (unanimously) against its own fundraising techniques? This legislation was specifically directed against the GOP mailer...
At least the Republicans did the right thing after their dishonesty was exposed. Maybe next time they might try some integrity before they get caught?