Is this anti-Obama ad illegal?

By GottaLaff

Is this ad illegal? As Bugs Bunny once said, mmmm, could be!

A new ad raising Barack Obama's ties to 60s-era radical William Ayers may violate election law, according to campaign finance experts interviewed by the Huffington Post. [...]

"This negative campaign ad is clearly express advocacy, and under a federal law passed in 2003, the Bi-Partisan Campaign Reform Act (known colloquially as McCain-Feingold), it cannot legally be paid for with corporate money, including those of a non-profit," said Laura MacCleery, deputy director of the democracy program at the Brennan Center for Justice. "The ad indisputably concerns an election, takes a position on the character and fitness for office of a candidate, and raises no legislative issue. Even this highly skeptical Supreme Court would turn up its noses at the foul odor emitted by this clear abuse of federal election law."

For its part, a Fox News representative told the Associated Press that the network had rejected the spot. [...]

For its part, the Obama campaign notes that a former McCain aide is now leading the group, and is suggesting an illegal coordination between an independent group and the Arizonan's campaign. But while the evidence for that claim is circumstantial (and refuted by McCain), the notion of whether the independent group's fundraising and activity are legal is another matter entirely. While the group might claim to be what's referred to as an MCFL-501c(4), which would not prevent their broadcasting the ad, it's not clear that the group could avoid disclosing its donor rolls, either.

There's more, but I'll end with this:

LATE UPDATE: In response to a detailed series of questions related to electioneering and FEC filing status, the American Issues Project issued a terse email reply to the Huffington Post.

"Yes sir. We filed with FEC," wrote spokesperson Christian Pinkston.

As of Thursday night, there was no filing for the group on the FEC's website (which can take some time to reflect newly received reports). Still unclear is the extent of the independent group's disclosure -- specifically, whether it will simply reveal the aggregate receipts and expenditures, or whether it will reveal individual donors for the $2.8 million ad buy.

Irony isn't dead after all.

H/t: Commenter SharonAustinTX