527 Ruling

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader found this Washington Post article rather interesting.

Interesting in that your Maximum Leader completely agrees with the court's decision in the case. Judge James Robertson ruled that just because the Federal Election Commission doesn't move quickly in its investigations and determinations doesn't give a federal court the authority to force them (the FEC) to move faster.

This means, as you may have guessed, that all of the various 527 organizations will have free reign of the radio and airwaves through the election (and possibly beyond if required).

The judge, oddly enough, expidited his decision so that the Bush Campaign might seek an appeal decision before the election.

If Kerry wanted to limit the power and influence of the 527s (which he has no reason to do in point of fact) he would join up with the Bush Campaign on this - otherwise frivolous - lawsuit.

And a final (related) note...

The FEC is one of the most useless groups set up by our federal government. They are given symbolic statutory authority over so many federal election spending regulations; then cronically underfunded to prevent them from doing their job in a timely manner.

Don't expect a 527 ruling from the FEC before March 2005.

And by the way, your Maximum Leader predicts that the ruling will say that everything the 527's did during the '04 campaign was fine and legal. Furthermore, your Maximum Leader believes that Congress will not modify campaign finance law to curtail 527 activities.

Carry on.