One of the more fascinating aspects of the presidential campaign has been the proliferation of email smears against Barack Obama, and his campaign’s efforts to fight back. Back in July, such an email dropped into my inbox, which claimed to be a reprint of a New York Times column by Maureen Dowd. A complete fabrication quickly debunked, the column claimed that contributions to the Obama campaign originated illegally from the Middle East and China:

[They] were able to collate the number of contributions that were coming in seemingly from individuals but the funds were from only a few credit card accounts and bank electronic funds transfers. The internet service providers (ISP) they were able to trace were from Saudi Arabia, Iran, and other Middle Eastern countries. One of the banks used for fund transfers was also located in Saudi Arabia. Another concentrated group of donations was traced to a Chinese ISP with a similar pattern of limited credit card charges. It became clear that these donations were very likely coming from sources other than American voters. This was discussed at length within the campaign and the decision was made that none of these donations violated campaign financing laws.

Now comes the news that the Republican National Committee will file an FEC complaint on the Obama campaign’s fundraising practices:

The RNC is alleging that the Obama campaign was so hungry for donations it “looked the other way” as contributions piled up from suspicious, and possibly even illegal foreign donors. “We believe that the American people should know first and foremost if foreign money is pouring into a presidential election,” said RNC Chief Counsel Sean Cairncross.

Interestingly, the RNC admits to having no evidence that the Obama campaign has knowingly accepted but not returned foreign donations. It would appear that the RNC has taken a rumor started by a chain email and run with it as a legitimate angle of attack.

What’s next? Will Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson claim that a Nigerian Prince has enough money to bail out the American economy, but that we first need to wire over a $700 billion advance?

A quick note about the Law of Unintended Consequences in action: A post on Crooks and Liars earlier this afternoon reported:

It appears that the RNC is pretty happy with the number of “friends” it has on Facebook. Their thinking apparently is that it bodes well for the November election, as they for the first time have more than the DNC. I’ve heard rumors they’re shopping that story to some friendly reporters. If you’d like to make them look ridiculous, you can join the Democratic Party’s Facebook group here.

Apparently, the RNC Facebook group, in the midst of a membership drive according the graphic on their page, had passed the DNC Facebook group at somewhere around the 11,000 member mark. A few hours later, Markos posted the news on a Daily Kos Open Thread, and the lead the RNC group had quickly vanished.

To pour salt on their Republican wounds, within two and a half hours of the Daily Kos post, the DNC Facebook group reached 15,000 members, the original goal of the RNC (which remains well under 12,000 at the time of this writing). A few lessons out of this, in no particular order:

• Daily Kos has a huge readership. A front-page post is seen by more eyeballs than most national organizations get when they send out email blasts.
• Don’t brag about social media numbers. They’re a fickle beast.
• Republicans can’t copy Democratic strategies and expect to win. Democrats own Facebook. Deal with it and move on to another battleground.

And so it goes, in the wacky intersection of politics and technology…