I was within a couple of feet of this guy once,
and I can honestly say I have never felt more
compelled to cold-cock someone in my life.
Posted on 11/19/2007 2:19:20 PM PST by Sub-Driver
FEC slaps Media Fund with huge fine By: Kenneth P. Vogel November 19, 2007 05:01 PM EST
The Federal Election Commission unanimously voted to levy a $580,000 fine against a group that spent tens of millions of dollars in support of Democrat John Kerry’s presidential campaign in 2004.
The Media Fund, which was led by former Bill Clinton aide Harold M. Ickes and EMILY’s List President Ellen Malcolm, agreed to pay the fine to settle charges it illegally spent more than $53 million in the run-up to Election Day 2004.
The penalty is the seventh largest in FEC history.
But it’s only the latest in a series of huge fines against groups that poured unregulated cash into the often-nasty ads that shaped the race between Kerry and President George W. Bush.
The so-called 527 groups, named for the section of the IRS code under which they were incorporated, raised money from groups or in amounts barred by federal election rules.
Like other 527s saddled with heavy fines by the FEC, the Media Fund has largely closed up shop, and big-money outside groups are now looking at other avenues for influencing the 2008 elections.
The FEC had already fined a number of major 527s for illegal spending during the 2004 elections, including the Democratic-leaning groups MoveOn.org and the George Soros-backed America Coming Together, as well as the Republican-supporting groups Progress for America Voter Fund and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
A lousy 1% fine?? So that’s going to stop this in the future? I doubt it.
Just the cost of doing business.
Now IF their Status were revoked, then I might be a little more impresse, and IF some of the officers were personally fined or jailed.......
Good that they pissed away 53 million of union members due in a losing cause.
The fine should have been closer to 12 million though. Founding members should be personally responsible for the fines.
supporters of Kerry. Haven’t they suffered enough?
I’m reminded of Rathergate. What if Kerry squeaked out a win based on media hyperventilating over those documents? What if it took a year or two to determine that Rather and his fellow travelers made up the whole thing in order to take out a sitting President.
IMHO, the Justice Dept should take over from the FEC and make sure that the communist and union capo Ickes does prison time. Yeah, I know, when pigs fly.
At last, corruption has been elimianted from campaign financing!
John McCain is a genius!
< /sarc>
Ah, Mr. McCain strikes again! Hope John remembers his indictment in the Keating Five banking scandal! (he was a unindicted co-conspirator) Do make you wonder.....
Right. Put these losers in jail, hard time, and this will stop soon enough.
“as well as the Republican-supporting groups Progress for America Voter Fund and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.”
How much were these groups fined? And what percentage of their spending did those fines represent?
We are so far down the rat hole we'll never find our way out.
Just pocket changes for the Clintons.
For the Clintons and their flying monkeys, that fine is just a cost of doing business. They didn’t work a day in their lives for the funds. Who cares if the hard earned dollars of their donors don’t wind up where they should. It’s no sweat off the Clinton’s backs.
Yep, it is just a very small cost of doing business to take the presidency. It is totally meaningless and will deter nothing. Soros will illegally spend a billion for Hillary if it is necessary.
I’m sure that this story will lead off the CBS Evening News, and Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann will be all over it.
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