The Examiner has a story today that kind of boggles our noggins. It seems A. Scott Bolden, candidate for the At-Large seat on the D.C. Council, is upset with his opponent, current councilmember Phil Mendelson, for emailing a newsletter to about 1,000 consituents last week. Bolden argued that the emails constitute a violation of D.C. election laws, which prohibit councilmembers from mailing more than 99 newsletters or press releases at a time within 90 days of an election at taxpayer expense. The basic idea of the law is to prevent incumbents from having a financial advantage over their opponents. Reads the article:

On Aug. 10, Mendelson’s office e-mailed his August newsletter to roughly 1,000 District residents, said Beverly Wheeler, his chief of staff. The “At-Large Update” included descriptions of 10 bills Mendelson moved during the July 11 Council meeting and a paragraph about Mendelson receiving an award from the American Cancer Society.

“We did check with our general counsel, and there’s just no prohibition on e-mail,” Mendelson said Wednesday. “The correspondence act speaks to postage. We don’t stop government because there’s a campaign. But I understand that a council member with access to postage has an unfair advantage.”

Bolden claims that Mendelson’s email constitutes “skirting the law or violating the spirit of the law.” Except last time we checked, email didn’t cost us taxpayers a thing. Unless that whole “series of tubes” business was actually an accurate description of those hydraulic tubes at drive-thru banks, except that the Internet is the bank and every time a politician emails someone it deducts a small fee from the mysterious and fabled Taxpayer Account in the magical realm of TekNahLuhGeeEesKahnFoosing.