What Part Of 'Against The Law' Does Michael Steele Not Understand?

 
Zachary Roth of TPM shows us an RNC mailer that reminds us that there are really two kinds of Republicans... liars and goddamned liars:

TPMMuckraker
Even After Law Aimed At Banning It, RNC Still Sending Misleading 'Census' Mailer
Zachary Roth | April 26, 2010, 9:38AM

The Republican National Committee is continuing to send out a misleading fundraising mailer labeled "Census Document," just weeks after Congress passed a law aimed at banning such mailers.

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An RNC mailer obtained by TPMmuckraker bears the words "Census Document" and, in all caps, "DO NOT DESTROY/OFFICIAL DOCUMENT," on the outside of the envelope. In smaller letters, it says: "This is not a U.S. government document." The new law requires, among other things, that such mailers state the name and address of the sender on the outside of the envelope -- something the RNC's missive doesn't appear to do. Inside, a letter from RNC chair Michael Steele, dated April 12, asks recipients to fill out a questionnaire about their political views, and solicits donations of as much as $500 or more. (See the mailer here.)

Last month, in response to virtually identical RNC mailers, members of both parties cried foul, raising the concern that the mailers could reduce the response rate for the actual Census -- which was mailed to Americans last month -- by confusing some voters. ...

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Indeed it does... still... look a lot like an official U.S. census document. And apparently it has caused some actual confusion in the field.

One can understand why the Republican Party would want the Census to fail: if everybody is counted, the denominator numbers for all kinds of allocations in the federal and state budgets are correct, people get their fair share, and Republicans are stuck with something resembling their fair representation in Congress. In politics, an accurate count is everything.

But fairness is not the Republican way. And if the RNC gets a few contributions in the process of disturbing the counts, that's just gravy for them. The RNC... this is not some anonymous 527 group sending bogus mailers before an election, this is the fucking Republican National Committee... first sends an illegal mailer resembling as closely as possible an official U.S. Census mailer (look at the damned thing; the link is in the TPM quote above), then, when caught and legally preempted from doing such a thing, promptly does it again.

This is so stupid it is beyond even my imagination of what Michael Steele would attempt... and I imagine him doing truly stupid things. Do they have him dead-to-rights enough this time at least to boot his butt out as party chair? or are we going to see the GOP managed... from jail? In many ways, the more appropriate punishment for the RNC would be a fine so large even they would notice.

The next question: was this crime the result of a conspiracy, i.e., did multiple members of the high Republican leadership know about this and authorize it? Now that would be really interesting to see the entire RNC run from prison like an organized crime gang in the heydey of RICO!