With CREW complaint, ‘Super Bowl of Freedom’ goes into overtime

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann broke House rules by using her taxpayer-funded website to urge people to attend her Nov. 5 “Super Bowl of Freedom” rally, according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). Bachmann and other House members also may have violated rules by failing to get a permit for the demonstration, which they termed a “press conference.” That’s what CREW said in a complaint to the new Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE).

CREW’s Matt Jacob told the Minnesota Independent that House members aren’t supposed to use their congressional websites to urge public action on behalf of or against pending legislation.

In its letter (pdf) CREW cited this House rule:

The content of a Member’s Web site … [m]ay not include grassroots lobbying or solicit support for a Member’s position.

Bachmann’s website, CREW says, urged “[t]he people” to travel to Washington, D.C. “and tell their Representatives to vote no to a governmental take-over of one-fifth of our economy.”

Bachmann announced the Nov. 5 “House Call” rally on Fox News on Oct. 30. That left enough time for Bachmann to meet the five-day lead time required to apply for a permit for an event on the Capitol grounds, according to a U.S. Capitol Police guidelines that CREW includes in its supporting documents (pdf).

CREW’s complaint doesn’t cover another apparent aspect of Bachmann’s official efforts as impresario of the Capitol-steps anti-health care rally. According to the Savage (Minn.) Pacer newspaper, Bachmann’s staff helped a man not from her congressional district to find a nearby bus from Eden Prairie, Minn. headed to Washington, D.C. for the rally:

So he called the Savage Chamber of Commerce trying to get a carpool together of other interested business owners. No one contacted him, so he began asking friends and other business owners and then contacted Rep. Michele Bachmann’s office where he found out about the buses leaving Eden Prairie.

The OCE is a newly formed body that has been on the receiving end of sniping from the longer-in-the-tooth but slow-off-the-mark House Ethics committee. Jacob told MnIndy the tally of CREW’s complaints to the OCE is so far “not a huge number.”