Ok- NOW it’s getting out of hand with this guy- he wants a CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION on the Bill Ayers ad- he’s sending ANOTHER LETTER- after yesterday’s letter they decided to REALLY step in it (see below). There’s speculation that this is a pre-emptive shot- because the Annenberg papers are now being pored through by the press- thanks to Stanley Kurtz
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0808/Obama_camp_Prosecute_Simmons.html
Obama camp: Prosecute Simmons
Obama general counsel Bob Bauer today sent a second, sharper letter to the Justice Department, directly attacking the Dallas billionaire funding a harsh attack ad, Harold Simmons.
“We reiterate our request that the Department of Justice fulfill its commitment to take prompt action to investigate and to prosecute the American issues Project, and we further request that the Department of Justice investigate and prosecute Howard (sic) Simmons for a knowing and willful violation of the individual aggregate contribution limits,” he wrote.
He called the group’s activities “patently illegal.”
Bauer made the case that Simmons’ group fulfilling its a real nonprofit charter because it hasn’t spent any money on anything other than attacking Obama.
The American Issues Project released a statement responding to the letter.
“Having failed in its attempts to get our legal, factual and fully-supported ad off the air, Barack Obama’s campaign now wants to put our donors in prison for exercising their right to free speech,” said Ed Martin, the group’s president. “These over-the-top bullying tactics are reminiscent of the kind of censorship one would see in a Stalinist dictatorship, with the only difference being that those guys generally had to wait until they were in power to throw people who disagreed with them into jail.”
The group said its ad would continue to air through the end of the Democratic National Convention. Simmons has spent almost $3 million to air the ad, which can be seen on the group’s site.
A spokeswoman for the Justice Department, Laura Sweeney, had no comment on the second letter.
It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time Bauer has called for criminal investigations and prosecutions into the donors to independent groups critical of Obama, including one supporting John Edwards and another supporting Hillary Rodham Clinton. His words did have the effect of scaring their donors and consultants, but haven’t yet appeared to result in any prosecution.
I'm still trying to figure out how stating irrefutable truth is breaking the law.....oh, yeah, McCAIN-FEINGOLD /sarc
I'm taking Ann Coulter's advice and getting bombed before voting. Luckily the polls are within walking, er, stumbling distance.
How is it he can dictate to the DOJ, but those bastards have yet to check out Nancy attempting to cut of our troops supplies re: Pakistan, setting stuff off via Syria, Rockefeller screaming to the top of his traitor lungs to the MEast the coming war, McGovern w/ FARC, the uranium and Obama info on the laptop, many more violations of the Logan Act as well as spooks and projects named on the house floor and leaked to the press by senators and representatives... on CSPAN and in the papers, or even the muslim guy dead in the hotel in Denver, the suicide bomber at OU, the GTech bottle bombers, UMich, the cell pay phones, many stories going unreported by the press.
Doesn’t the press realize they’re out of a job once he gets in?
Presenting the facts and telling the truth should be the threshold test for these ads. Period, end of story, IMO. And I’m having a hard time resolving my conflict between detesting the law written by our presidential candidate and at the same time voting for him.