hmmm...well, the RNC is not the same thing as the administration and from what this article says, they are simply trying to make sure that the TV stations don't violate the new campaign-finance laws. to pair administration initiatives with the legal acts of private organizations is not playing fair, rhetorically speaking. as for republicans being against tort reforms...i'm not sure how the RNC's press release (which is really all that it is) indicates a major shift in the GOP platform. they are only trying to make sure that a law is being enforced. just because you may agree with moveon.org's ad doesn't mean that it's automatically wrong to try and suppress it if it was illegally funded.

Are you telling me that Bush and Ed Gillespie aren't in coordination? I don't fault them for that. It's only natural that the President act as the head of his party.

And they're not "simply" trying to make sure television stations aren't violating the laws. The RNC (and the DNC for that matter) isn't a consumer advocate organization. They're telling television companies that they could face lawsuits if they run the ads. Last time I checked, Republicans were lamenting how companies are afraid to do anything because of the rampant threat of lawsuits. And now they're "simply" reminding companies that they can be sued if they run ads for the opposition. What good samaritans!

this is the brave new world of campaign-finance laws! of course, bush and the RNC are acting in coordination. there are some genuine questions that could be raised by either side about how these laws govern advertising, etc. given the new activist FCC (which is a whole OTHER problem), i wouldn't be surprised to see more and more of this kind of back-and-forth. both sides will question the laws when each side feels they can gain something political from the questioning. i was more wondering why you would pair an article about the latest polling data in israel with coverage of the RNC. i don't get what the two have in common. what does the RNC have to do with internal israeli politics? whether or not the israelis withdraw from the Gaza strip is an entirely political decision. of course they are going to curry favor with the only major government that supports israel. and would a democrat administration really have such a different israel policy than GWB's?

I won't speculate over what a Democratic administration would do right now in Israel. But I can point out Clinton didn't end his last term by playing it safe and encouraging a status quo of suffering. Instead, he tried to help build a better future for Israelis and Palestinians. But that's a whole other thread.

I can say, however, that I hope the DNC doesn't pull these kind of scare tactics. It's one thing for elected officials to regulate the media in the public interest. But it's something quite different for private partisan organizations to subtly threaten free speech by whispering the word "lawsuits" in the ears of media execs. Maybe the RNC is taking cues from the Scientologists?

As for the connection -- there isn't a direct one. Chalk it up to the randomness of blogging. I'm simply trying to sketch out how the Bush administration and the RNC are approaching their election campaign. From these two stories, I gather they plan on downplaying controversy overseas and intimidating critics.