How Amusing ... Not!

(Cartoon by Lee Judge/Kansas City Star (1/17/14) and featured at McClatchy DC. Click on image to enlarge.)

Leave it to the Republicans to find a new way to raise money, at the expense of the Democrats, of course.

From the L.A. Times:

The National Republican Congressional Committee bought up hundreds of URLs ahead of the 2014 election cycle and has created nearly 20 websites appearing to support Democratic candidates in all but the small print, a spokesman for the campaign confirmed Thursday.

The websites include donation forms that accept credit cards and encourage viewers to contribute up to $500, but instead of money going to the Democratic candidates, it goes to the NRCC. ...

But NRCC spokesman Daniel Scarpinato defended the committee’s strategy, calling the Democratic candidates’ official websites “deceptive” for omitting support for President Obama’s policies. He also dismissed concerns that the sites were misleading, characterizing the language contained in the websites as “clearly negative.”

“I think they are crystal clear about the perspective they are coming from,” he said. “And the Democrats don’t want this information out there. Therefore, they’re freaking out about them.” [Emphasis added]

The Republicans claim they have violated no FEC rules (although that is disputable, as the article points out).  The GOP simply went out and bought the website urls from the internet authority before the candidates got around to it.  In addition, claim Republicans, if one actually reads the material on the bogus site it is clear that it is asking for donations to the NRCC and not to the candidate whose picture appears.  In other words, if Democratic voters don't read the fine print they should be ripped off.

Watergate it ain't.  But sleazy and slimy?  Absolutely.

I think the GOP must be more than a little nervous over the upcoming elections.  I sure do hope so.