Gary Johnson: The return of the Invisible Candidate

We've mentioned elsewhere on this site that in addition to Sarah Palin, Chris Christie and Donald Trump, there's a fellow named Gary Johnson also running for the 2012 Republican nomination for president... (what? Palin, Christie and Trump aren't running? Really? Then who is?)

Unfortunately (for Johnson), Johnson's campaign has been dogged by a nearly impenetrable Cloak of Invisibility, with the poor schlub routinely excluded from the last 127 GOP primary debates because his poll numbers are only in a statistical tie with those of Santorum and Huntsman, who coincidentally have not been excluded.

Johnson, at any rate, has now decided enough is enough and is filing an official complaint with the FEC and the FCC over all this unfair becloaking. Here's a snippet from the official release from the Gary Johnson 2012 website (yes, there's a Gary Johnson 2012 website! Who knew?):

The Presidential campaign of former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson is filing complaints with both the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to protest Johnson’s exclusion from Saturday’s Republican debate in South Carolina.

Citing prohibitions against corporate contributions, the campaign’s FEC complaint makes the argument that, by arbitrarily choosing who benefited from valuable air time during the broadcast debate and excluding others, CBS was “directly and significantly supporting those candidates it favors, and advocating the nomination of one of their favorites and opposing the nomination of Complainant, whom CBS evidently disfavors.”

Similarly, in a complaint filed with the FCC, the Johnson campaign asserts that “The public owns the airways over which CBS broadcasts, and the public deserves to be free from bias- favoring some candidates over others- as well as illegal support of certain presidential candidates on national network television.”

In a statement, Johnson senior campaign advisor Ron Nielson said, “As this campaign progresses, it is clear that nationally televised debates are having a tremendous impact. Candidates are moving up and down in the polls with every debate, fundraising is impacted dramatically, and Republican voters obviously remain undecided. When one looks at the inconsistent and arbitrary criteria networks such as CBS have used to decide who gets to be on the stage for the debates, it is apparent that decisions are being made in board rooms that are having the effect of ‘preselecting’ candidates.

“That is just wrong. We owe it to our supporters and to the process to take this basic unfairness and clear bias to those agencies whose job it is to insure that the power of the airwaves is not being misused in an arbitrary manner in the Republican nominating process.” Copies of the Johnson campaign’s complaints to the FEC and FCC are included below.

And from the Complaint of the Invisible Candidate itself:

On Saturday, November 12, 2011 Respondent CBS televised on its national network another debate, but instead of including all leading candidates has elected to arbitrarily and capriciously exclude some candidates and include others. In so doing, CBS is, without any other explanation, choosing to support certain candidates. By excluding viable candidates like Complainant, who has been included by cable networks in their debates CBS is directly and significantly supporting those candidates it favors, and advocating the nomination of one of their favorites and opposing the nomination of Complainant, whom CBS evidently disfavors. In so doing, CBS is making an illegal corporate in-kind contribution to those favored candidates. The value of this contribution vastly exceeds the contribution limit that applies to any category of lawful donor.

Good luck with that, Gary.