U.S. government officials approved President-elect Barack Obama’s use of a “dot-gov” web domain name after initially rejecting it when a campaign transition team chief warned a waiver of the rules was necessary so that “a clear message of ‘CHANGE'” could be effected.
Christopher P. Lu, executive director of the Obama-Biden Transition Project, wrote in a letter dated Election Day that the private campaign organization had made a request to be awarded one of the restricted “dot-gov” addresses,
specifically “change.gov,” according to documentation unveiled today by the government-watchdog group Judicial Watch.
Lu said the campaign shouldn’t be bound by ordinary rules.
“I am writing to request a waiver from the Internet.gov domain naming conventions as outlined in 41 CFR102-173.90 and register and assign the www.change.gov domain to this office,” he wrote. “I understand that this CFR citation addresses special restrictions on the use and registration of canonical, or category, names in the Internet .gov domain space and that your office previously denied a request from the GSA Presidential Transitional Team to register this domain.”
He continued, “As the executive director of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Project, I believe that a clear message of ‘CHANGE’ is required to effect a successful presidential transition and that establishing the www.change.gov domain is a critical component of this message.”
On Judicial Watch’s blog, the organization said the website “was illegally authorized to register as an official U.S. government domain.”
 Part of the Obama campaign letter insisting on being given a government web domain |
“When Team Obama announced its infamous change.gov website, Judicial Watch quickly filed a public records request with the agency (General Services Administration—GSA) that authorized it because the campaign clearly didn’t meet the strict eligibility requirements for official government websites,” Judicial Watch said.
“The GSA, which manages and supports the basic functioning of federal agencies, specifically limits coveted ‘.gov’ websites to U.S. government organizations at the federal, Native Sovereign Nation, state and local levels. These may include governmental departments and programs as well as cities and townships represented by an elected body of officials,” Judicial Watch said.
“The agency specifically forbids political or campaign information on any ‘.gov’ website as well as any tax-exempt, nonprofit organization that can engage in lobbying or political campaigning,” the organization said.
However, “Obama’s change site proudly features the Obama-Biden Transition Project, a 501c(4) organization that actively engages in lobbying and political campaigning. The website also uses Obama’s favorite invented term of Office of the President-Elect, which is definitely not an official government office,” Judicial Watch said.
“Incredibly, the GSA caved in to Obama machine pressure and reversed its original and appropriate denial of a government domain for political use,” the organization said.
WND e-mails to Obama’s transition team as well as his change.gov site requesting a comment on the use of the domain were not returned. Nor was a telephone message left with the official who made the request.
The only response was from the Obama-Biden Transition Project, which promoted several links on the change.gov site, but did not respond to the question at hand.
“We appreciate hearing from you and hope you will continue to visit and share your thoughts. Although we may not be able to address each message individually, your input and the input of millions of other Americans will continue to guide President-elect Obama,” the automated response said. “Please note that replies to this email will not be answered.”
A day after the election and Lu’s demand an e-mail from one GSA official to another said, “We are proceeding on www.Change.Gov. Can you please send us an e-mail confirming this request – so that it is from an official PTT, Government authorized source?”
The documentation also revealed the request for the domain name was made on Oct. 20.
The agency also came under criticism for its decision. E-mails revealed under the FOIA request showed this comment: “There’s a website called www.change.gov and is being used by Barack Obama as what I believe is an inappropriate use of the .gov domain name,” said one critic. “This site doesn’t appear to follow the very strict guidelines you have listed and I believe it’s more of a post-campaign site than should be disallowed.”
Said another concerned citizen: “I came across www.change.gov recently and it occurred to me that this registration may not be valid according to the guidelines set forth (in federal rules). Mr. Obama has not yet been inaugurated to the office of the president, nor has the electoral college voted yet. Furthermore the content on change.gov closely mirrors Mr. Obama’s campaign site. Under these circumstances I question why this registration was approved.”
An earlier internal government e-mail regarding the issue said, “Domain does not meet naming convention.”
