A Simple Click Stirs a Lot of Outrage
For some time, travelers browsing the State Department Web site for helpful tips about Guadalajara, Mexico, found much more than they bargained for when they clicked on a photograph of President Bush.

The click transported them to a partisan playground, where they were told how to get involved with the Republican Party and even how to donate money to it.

The State Department site, it turns out, had been providing a link to a Web site run by the Republican National Committee despite federal laws prohibiting government resources from being used for partisan purposes.

The link was not removed until late this afternoon, after a reporter asked about it. State Department officials said they were not sure how long the link had been operating. But one person who noticed it said it was operating as early as Sept. 5.

The site, which had a red, white and blue Republican National Committee logo, also gave visitors an opportunity to register to vote, sign up as a party volunteer and donate money, all with a click of the mouse.

"Help the R.N.C. support the Republican Party and win elections nationwide," the Web site said. "Help us give President Bush a stronger working majority in Congress."

The discovery of the link on the State Department site prompted protests from politicians and good-government advocates, who called it blatantly political and demanded an investigation into who was behind it.

It is unclear whether other government Web sites provide such links, though critics have long maintained that government sites themselves are often thinly veiled promotional tools for politicians.

"We've been saying for years that the principal purpose of many Congressional Web sites is just to promote members of Congress," said Gary Ruskin, the director of the nonpartisan Congressional Accountability Project.

Election law experts say the link to the Republican site may violate several laws, including the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in partisan activities "while on duty or in government offices."

The experts also say the Web site and its link may also violate campaign finance laws that impose penalties for soliciting campaign contributions from government property.

The situation has prompted Representative Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, to send a letter to the White House urging the administration to remove the link to the site.

Mr. Mendendez, the ranking Democrat on a House committee that oversees the State Department, also called for an investigation by the Federal Elections Commission, the Justice Department and the State Department's inspector general.

In an interview this afternoon, Mr. Menendez scoffed at the State Department's contention that the link was a mistake.

"You cannot create a link like this by accident," he said. "No way. It takes a lot of thought to create such a link. It cannot be inadvertent."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/13/politics/13WEB.html