Blogger John Bambenek ignited a powerkeg of bipartisan protests with the revelation that he had filed a FEC complaint against the owner of Daily Kos, alleging they operate as a political committee and should be subject to FEC regulation.
You can read the responses at Daily Kos, Redstate, NRO, and Instapundit; all of them quite critical.
The now retired Online Coalition (of which I as well as Redstate and Daily Kos were members) addressed this issue before the FEC in 2005 and 2006. It just so happens that I a write up on the group in the archives and (via Adam B. at Daily Kos) a link to the letter [PDF version] filed with the FEC. Mike Krempasky wonders (rightly) if Bambenek was just completely AWOL during that period; so wrongly does he attempt to rehash already plowed ground.
I wondered if he was really that misinformed or if it was all just some sort of stunt, so I set off in search of answers… In 2005 Bambenek at least pretended to understand the issue as he posted in support of the efforts of the Online Coalition. In my book that supports the theory that this is an attempt to produce some sort of political “gotcha” stunt.
While there’s hardly any content produced at Daily Kos that I would agree with, I will fight for their right to publish free from onerous FEC regulation just as fiercely as I would for this site. That’s been my (and many others) position since 2005 and there’s nothing in the flimsy excuse for a complaint that makes me question that stance…
