Thanks, Al Gore

We can thank the Al "If I can't win, I'll sue!" Gore for this turn of events: Dim-O-Cracks ask Attorney General John Ashcroft to open a criminal investigation into links between the Bush camp and the Swifties.

All this hub-bub is in the wake of Ben Ginsberg's resignation from the Bush campaign. Ginsberg's comments upon his resignation seemed perfectly logical given how the Old Media operates.

"I have decided to resign as national counsel to your campaign to ensure that the giving of legal advice to decorated military veterans, which was entirely within the boundaries of the law, doesn't distract from the real issues upon which you and the country should be focusing," Ginsberg wrote.

While this relationship (Ginsberg advising both Bush & the Swifties) was not illegal, the Lurch campaign has seized this as an opportunity to give their lapdogs in the Old Media an angle to cover - since they're not bothering to cover the actual content of the Swift Vets' tome.

Not so ironically, these legal challenges are coming from a campaign that is backed by millions and millions of 527 dollars via MoveOn.Org and other such "non-partisan" groups. The Lurch campaign has advisers/lawyers colluding with outside groups - MoveOn, Americans "Coming" Together, et al - but as usual, what's good for the dim-o-cracks is considered foul play when the other side launches an effective series of ads. I'm afraid I'm becoming numb to this type of hypocrisy - they engage in it so frequently, and the Old Media is so quick to comply with their absurd premises, that it's merely accepted as part of the current political landscape and largely ignored.

I contend that these types of legal challenges -- going to the FEC, running to the Attorney General, crying to billionaire wifey -- wouldn't have happened before the travesty of Gore's attempt to steal the 2000 election through the courts. When Gore went off the rails and started filing lawsuits in the wake of his defeat (yes, pansy-ass liberals, I said defeat), that set a precedent that we're now saddled with from here to eternity.

While Clinton lowered the bar on the quality of white-house whore (JFK got much better quality strange for his extra-marital romps), Gore has lowered the bar on election decorum - paving the way for low-character hoodwinks like Lurch and his cronies. Let me state for the record, however, that if I had made the horrible mistake of marrying Hillary the Marxist Hag, I would take shots at every chunky intern who came through the Rose Garden with an open mouth.

But I digress. By the way, has anyone yet heard Lurch refute the content of the Swifties' claims? All I hear him doing now is backtracking on his first purple heart and floating trial ballons regarding an "apology to veterans".

UPDATE: The Washington Times has a good run-down on the lopsided cash distribution between leftist and conservative 527 groups.

Anti-Bush 527s have been a political force this election cycle, with nine of the top ten fund-raising 527s being Democratic or anti-Bush groups, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Among the top 50 fund-raising 527s, which CRP determined based on Internal Revenue Service records as of Monday, just a handful are working against Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry.

CRP says three groups — the Media Fund, America Coming Together (ACT) and MoveOn.org — have raised a combined $64 million to spend on ads and voter registration and mobilization efforts.

"Democrats as a fact dominate the 527s right now. There's no question about that," said Steven Weiss, communications director for CRP. "And Republicans, who initially opposed 527s, are now getting into the game and trying to raise as much money as possible."

Although 527s have been around for years, they were not exploited until the new campaign finance law in 2002 banned political parties from using soft money. In light of the change, 527s essentially became the outlet for wealthy donors, corporations and labor unions to use their money to influence elections.