I know that the US Supreme Court loosened restrictions on campaign ethics last week, but, former Senator Fred Thompson seems to be thinking that they rid of us of ALL restrictions. Sadly, that’s just not so. The Hill reports:

Former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) may be violating Federal Election Commission (FEC) laws by failing to report funds raised in the second quarter, which ends tomorrow — giving his probable presidential campaign a one-month fundraising advantage over his rivals in the third quarter.

While that may seem a little tame, compared with SCOTUS permission for corporations to dump millions of corporate dollars into last minute political attack ads, the law is pretty clear, and Thompson’s unethical behavior could easily have consequences, if, that is, someone has the stones to do something about it.

Republican or Democratic rivals could file a complaint against Thompson if he enters the 2008 presidential race and it becomes apparent that he spent the month of June campaigning rather than wrestling with the decision to run.

and also:

The law, however, is vague when it comes to the difference between testing the waters and all-out campaigning.

Those testing the waters are forbidden from referring to themselves as candidates, advertising or trying to get on a ballot.

Perhaps more importantly, the laws forbid such a person from “rais[ing] more money than what is reasonably needed to test the waters or amass funds (seed money) to be used after candidacy is established.”

Thompson attended at least one $2,300 fundraiser in Nashville this week, and as The Hill reported earlier this month, 100 of his supporters were asked to raise a total of about $4.7 million.

Read the rest HERE

So, the GOP’s Great White Hope seems to be just another unethical, fast and loose with the rules, peckerhead who seems to be a much better person on TV than in real life.