Bush files complaint against website

Attorneys for the George W. Bush presidential exploration committee have
filed a complaint with the Federal
Election Committee against a website claiming it
may be violating rules governing published political materials.

But the site, according to owner Zack Exley, is merely a “lampoon” of Bush’s
candidacy, and is not designed to be taken seriously, despite claims to the
contrary by Bush campaign officials.

In May of this year during a press conference, Bush’s agitation over the
contents of the site became obvious when he labeled the material published
there “garbage,” adding that Exley “was obviously a garbage man.”

However, Bush ignited a firestorm of protest from conservatives and First
Amendment advocates when he also said, “There ought to be limits to
freedom,” a reference to the FEC regulations that ostensibly could prohibit
the publishing of similar political lampoon sites in the future.

Bush officials also complained that the site closely mirrors the official
Bush 2000 site, saying that could give
voters the wrong impression about which site is attributable to the real
Bush campaign.

WorldNetDaily initially spoke with Bush media officials in an attempt to get
clarification on the story, but they did not respond as promised, despite
repeated telephone and e-mail requests.

In the meantime, Exley launched an Internet-based petition drive claiming “political web sites should not
have to register with the government,” He is asking visitors to sign the
document and send it to federal election officials.

According to an account published on Exley’s site, “When asked at a press
conference whether ‘the plug should be pulled’ on a web site, that discussed
drug use in his past Bush said, in front of several television cameras,
‘Yes,’ and added, ‘There ought to be limits to freedom.'”

“The Internet takes freedom of speech to a new level by making every person’
s speech available to anyone in the world who wants to listen,” the site
says. “Our leaders should be working to expand this new freedom, not to
limit it.”

Among other things, the site contains an altered graphic showing Bush
snorting cocaine, a story claiming Bush had turned himself in for past drug
use, and a link to an American Spectator story reporting on Bush’s connection
to the oil business and the sale of the Texas Rangers baseball team.