Well, it's been exactly one month since Congress passed a law forbidding misleading political mailers designed to look like official census documents, and that's exactly how long it took the RNC to break it:
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.
Here's the front of the envelope:
If you squint, you can almost read "This is not a U.S. Government document" in one corner.
More from TPM:
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.
See how many times you can count the word "Census" on just the top half of this page:
The entire document can be viewed here.
The sponsor of last month's bill outlawing these mailers is not amused:
After her office was forwarded a copy of the mailer, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), who sponsored the bill passed last month, noted that the mailer "does not appear to meet" the requirements of the new law -- and slammed the RNC.
"What is with these guys?," she said. "We pass a law in record time, with unanimous bipartisan support in both houses of Congress, to reduce confusion about the real Census-- knowing that every census form that isn't returned costs taxpayers money and hurts accuracy. But there goes the RNC again, right back to trying to make a buck on the Census!"
What's with them? How about an utter disregard for the law? What the hell, even when they support new laws (again, the vote was unanimous), it takes them exactly four weeks to defy them.
joy sinha in comments points out the GOP's classic response:
But RNC spokesman Doug Heye told TPMmuckraker: "We simply looked at the new law, saw that it did not apply to our mailer and continued with the mail pieces."
There's your Republican attitude toward law, right there. You almost have to admire it for the simplicity.
Luckily, at least one Democrat appears ready to do something about it:
The chairman of Nebraska's Democratic Party has filed a complaint over Republican mailings that he says could be mistaken as official 2010 Census forms.
Vic Covalt filed the complaint Sunday against the Republican National Committee and its chairman, Michael Steele, with the U.S. Postal Service. He says the mailings violate a new federal act that prohibits deceptive mailings that look like census forms.
Maybe this is just Michael Steele's way of going out with a bang.
Added note: it's kind of ironic that Republicans would gin up so much fear about the Census, even going so far as to discourage people from filling it out...and then attempt to fundraise using something designed to look like the Census. Seems a bit counterintuitive to me. It would be funny if a majority of the recipients muttered "Damn government" and simply threw the things away.