GOP Earmarks Website Ordered Shuttered

On Feb. 13, we noted the launch of a GOP/congressional website entitled "Earmark Reform" -- which we said "purports to promote the bipartisan message 'Stop the Earmarks. Fix Washington,' but appears to be a forum for federalist fury and partisan posturing." It's a weird site -- have a look here. Official congressional websites tend to be party-neutral, or, if they are party-based, their name, domain, and/or location make transparent their partisan identity. Here, the site is housed in a neutral name, domain, and location, but the content and tone are unmistakably apparatchik. So it is not altogether a surprise that, as the Sunlight Foundation reports, the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of Congress yesterday ordered the Web site "shut down and moved to a different location with a different domain name." But it will be interesting to see what the CAO says is the reason.
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