"In late summer of 2004, a rumor hit the Sylvania 300 race at the New Hampshire International Speedway that President Bush, on the re-election trail, was going to stop by. Having not sold the left rear quarter panel of his car to a paying sponsor, Kirk Shelmerdine chose to put the Bush/Cheney decal there.
Bush didn't show, and Shelmerdine was disqualified after finishing 30 of the race's 300 laps (for being "too slow"). But he decided to keep the decal on his car for three more races - the fans seemed to like it, he said. Little did he know the pit storm he'd unleashed.
On Sept. 30, 2004, Democratic activist Sydnor Thompson (a contributor to John Edwards) filed a six-page complaint with the FEC. It included a picture of Shelmerdine's car and alleged that the decal didn't contain a legally required disclaimer stating who had paid for the ad. It charged that Shelmerdine was making an undisclosed "independent expenditure" and an illegal corporate expenditure on behalf of the Bush campaign.
Huh? A guy slapping a sticker on the back of a race car could corrupt the Bush administration - or at least create a corrosive "appearance of corruption"? The FEC should have laughed this complaint off the track - perhaps even fined Thompson for wasting the taxpayers' money on a piece of political harassment.
Instead, the agency launched an investigation into Shelmerdine's intentions in putting the decal on his car and to determine the decal's 'value" to the Bush campaign.'"
Can't make this stuff up, kids. If a science fiction writer of the '50's were to create such a storyline, he'd have been laughed out of his editor's office. An American being threatened with fines and punishment because of an oversized bumper sticker.
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