To prove, for example, that an outside group’s ad was coordinated with a candidate’s campaign, any one of the following is required, according to FEC spokesman Bob Biersack:
The ad being aired by the group was broadcast at the request or suggestion of the candidate, his campaign or an agent of the campaign.
The group suggested the ad and the candidate or his agent assented to the ad, for example, by saying something such as, “That sounds like a good idea to me.”
The candidate or his agent was materially involved in decisions about the content of the ad, the times and places where it would air, the medium used, etc.
The ad was aired after what the FEC calls “substantial discussion” between the person or outside group paying for the ad and the campaign. If, for example, a campaign manager said to the head of a 527 group, “Over the next two weeks, our campaign’s ads will focus on the loss of textile jobs in this state,” and the outside group then ran its own ads buttressing that message, it would be coordination.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5772722/
What if a campaign "agent" mentions to the press that their campaign will be focusing on such-and-such in this state during this week? It seems like the rules are rather vague. It cannot be illegal for campaigns to discuss their campaign strategies publicly.
Too bad the First Amendment has been amended sooooooooo much. Should we all walk around with tape over our mouths for two months prior to an election? Except for John Kerry and his followers, of course.
The Swift Boats vets' ad don't meet ANY of the FEC's own tests. They weren't requested or suggested by the Bush campaign. Bush never endorsed the ads. There is no overt or implied coordination between the Swifties efforts and the Bush campaign. No legal grounds exist to have their ads yanked. They are as legitimate a 527 group as the MoveOn group is and no one on the Democratic side is on record as saying yank them off the air too. This smells of sheer desperation on the part of the Kerry people since what's really getting their goats is that a half-million dollar commercial is killing them. I don't see how the FEC can help them, for even if they did pull the ads, there's still the book. And FR. Red China this country ain't and the Left's media monopoly is falling apart and they don't know how to handle everything that's been thrown at them. And if the truth were on their side - and this I guess goes to the heart of the matter - the Kerry Campaign wouldn't need to go to the FEC to silence a legitimate viewpoint they don't like.