Wah — the Republicans are beginning to realize that the Democrats might be able to match their incredible campaign spending, so they’re complaining in a hypocritical yowl:
The Bush campaign and the Republican Party filed charges yesterday with the Federal Election Commission accusing the Kerry campaign and seven “independent” organizations of conducting a criminal conspiracy to inject large amounts of “soft money” into the 2004 election.
The Bush campaign, which this month has spent an unprecedented $41.8 million on television ads, many of them attacking Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), has become increasingly frustrated by the ability of Kerry and such “independent” groups as MoveOn.org and the Media Fund to counter with nearly $20 million in ads.
… In an unusual move for a party traditionally opposed to campaign finance laws and government regulation, the GOP has turned increasingly to the federal regulatory system, especially the FEC, to restrict, if not silence, Kerry allies.
… Republican lawyer Benjamin L. Ginsberg, who is pursuing the complaint, charged that Kerry “has become the largest beneficiary of illegal soft money from wealthy special interests since the campaign finance reforms of the Watergate era.”
Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan countered: “This frivolous complaint is not worth the paper it is written on. The same Republicans who rail against frivolous lawsuits are happy to have their lawyers fire away when their candidate drops in polls.”
The Republicans claim that Kerry is the largest recipient of soft money? Um, guys, have you looked in your bank account lately?
