Cease & Desist
A professional protest firm helped build the site in a slick red, white and blue that at first glance looks similar to the official Bush campaign site — found a few letters away on the Internet at www.georgewbush.com.
     But a closer look finds biting jabs at the “unsuccessful Texas businessman,” including a fake platform that promises Bush would “pardon convicts who have ‘grown up’ but are still serving long sentences for possession of cocaine and other illegal drugs.”
     Bush bristled at the extensive parody site, saying “there ought to be limits to freedom.” His campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission and delivered a cease and desist order demanding the parody material be killed.
     “It is filled with libelous and untrue statements whose aim is to damage Governor Bush in his effort ‘for President’ in the upcoming election,” a copy of the FEC complaint provided by Exley reads.
     Rtmark, the group that built the site for Exley, complains filing with the FEC would constitute a breech of free speech.
     “George W. Bush Jr. apparently thinks small-time folk should have to register with the government before exercising free speech on the Internet,” said Rita Mae Rakoczi, a lawyer with Rtmark. “The implications of such a precedent could be quite serious.”

Complaints Backfire on Bush
The parody George W. Bush Web site has gotten 6,451,466 hits during the first 25 days of May, thanks in part to the story’s front-page treatment by The New York Times online edition, Exley said last week.
     Meanwhile, the real George W. Bush Web site has received only about 30,000 hits in May, according to Bush spokeswoman Mindy Tucker.
     Tucker said the George W. Bush Presidential Exploratory Committee was worried that people would misconstrue the parody Web site for the genuine article.
     “My concern is not that people are viewing it, but that they’re viewing it in the right context,” she said.
     Tucker said she recently got a phone call from a reporter working for a major metropolitan newspaper asking for a comment on Bush’s “Amnesty 2000” proposal to free drug convicts from prison.
     While the Bush campaign now says Exley has responded to its complaints by changing the site, the drug law parody remains.