Things in politics are never as simple as people or some group getting "marching orders" from Party Central. Sympathetic media outlets don't need to be commanded to accept and publish whatever juicy little tidbit that comes from people in government they support; they'll happily reduce the bar for legitimacy and accuracy all on their own initiative.

I remember trying to word my observations so as to not take the form of "those damn Republicans always do this"; they way I put it fingers some Republicans somewhere in this incident, but doesn't preclude the possibility that some Democrats somewhere engage in similar sleazy tactics.

Yeah, campaign finance "reform" is still a mess. Seems like a hell of a Catch-22 that reform laws have to be drafted by the very politicians they're targeted at. We're doomed unless we can get that fox away from the henhouse.