Hey, Wait a Minute

You know how Honest Honorable Straight-Talkin' John McCain likes to pat himself on the back for using public funds for his campaign, as opposed to taking donations? Why, then, did I just get an emailed appeal for a contribution from Sarah Palin, begging me as follows?

[...]

We need your support to stop the Obama-Biden Democrats' media buying binge. Your immediate contribution of $25, $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,000 or more will help fund our team's ads in key media markets across the country.

[...]

I'm asking you today to help our team get this message out. The funds you give today will help pay for upcoming ad buys and get-out-the-vote efforts.

[...]

We can't let this happen and that's why your financial support is so critical to our efforts. Every dollar we raise goes directly to help fund media buys and get-out-the-vote efforts in important races across the country. So, please make the most generous contribution you can give - whether its $25 or $250. We're certainly grateful for any help you can give. Thank you.

P.S. Are you tired of watching the barrage of liberal television ads the Obama-Biden Democrats are running? If so, then I ask that you help us close the media buying gap by making a generous contribution of any amount to McCain-Palin Victory 2008. And if you can give $75 or more today, we'll send you an exclusive McCain-Palin Victory 2008 lapel pin to show your support during the final days of the campaign. We appreciate your support.

(Signature part via screen capture on the original email message.)

Fine print at the bottom of the email:

Because the McCain-Palin Campaign is participating in the presidential public funding system, it may not receive contributions for any candidate's election. However, federal law allows the McCain-Palin Campaign's Compliance Fund to defray legal and accounting compliance costs and preserve the Campaign's public grant for media, mail, phones, and get-out-the-vote programs. Contributions to McCain-Palin Victory 2008 will go to the Compliance Fund, and to participating party committees for Victory 2008 programs.

For the record, the links in the email all go through this link. If you hover over it, you can see it goes through a tracking script on gop.com. If you click it, you'll see that you're redirected to another site, which sure looks like the official McCain site, even if it has a different URL.

If you Google "John McCain" and click on a sponsored link, like this one, you'll see a big "Donate" button which takes you to the same site.

This is probably legal, but it sure seems sleazy. Think about this the next time you hear McCain or Palin whining about Obama running his campaign with real public funding.