Connection?

The left is waddling about smiling like a toddler that made a good pants over this story:

A lawyer for President Bush (news - web sites)'s re-election campaign disclosed Tuesday that he has been providing legal advice for a veterans group that is challenging Democratic Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites)'s account of his Vietnam War service.

Photo
AP Photo

Benjamin Ginsberg's acknowledgment marks the second time in days that an individual associated with the Bush-Cheney campaign has been connected to the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which Kerry accuses of being a front for the Republican incumbent's re-election effort.

The Bush campaign and the veterans' group say there is no coordination.

Which is, I suppose, nothing like this story at all:

Neil Reiff is listed as the contact person for MoveOn.org's 527 organization, as can be seen on the actual form submitted by MoveOn.org to the IRS here (PDF).

But Mr. Reiff seems to have another job. According to his firm's website, he's also the Deputy General Counsel for the Democratic National Committee:

From June, 1993 until May, 1998, Mr. Reiff served as Deputy General Counsel of the Democratic National Committee, and will retain this title in his new firm. In this capacity, Mr. Reiff has been responsible for assisting the DNC General Counsel in all legal matters affecting the national party. Mr. Reiff's major field of expertise is federal and state campaign finance laws. In that regard, Mr. Reiff advises and represents the DNC in all matters before the Federal Election Commission and state election agencies.

Although it is possible that his firm's website is out-of-date and he no longer holds this position, it seems that as recently as April 2004 he was still representing the Democratic Party (in this case, state party organizations) as can be seen in this June 2004 FEC communication addressed to him (PDF). That puts him working for the party in April 2004 -- and since he also submitted IRS forms for MoveOn in both March 2004 (PDF) and June 2004 (PDF), it's clear that he was working for both the Democratic Party and MoveOn's 527 during the same time period.

The reason I held off on publishing this information originally was that after consulting with some of the legal luminaries of the blogosphere, I did not get a clear answer as to whether Mr. Reiff's dual role was truly a conflict from an ethical, legal, or campaign-finance perspective (the consensus was that it didn't seem to be a conflict). And it honestly seems understandable to me that a lawyer might provide legal services to many groups without crossing the "coordination" line which 527's must honor.

But if Mr. Ginsberg is going to be criticized by Kerry's campaign for his dual role, it is only fair to ask the same questions about Mr. Reiff.

True enough.

It would seem - from my non-lawyer perspective, at least, that at first blush that Ginsberg did a good job of ensuring his role stayed within the letter of the law.

Reiff? Well, if Bear is right, we need to look into this.

Posted by Mitch at August 25, 2004 05:27 AM | TrackBack