Despite his long-standing opposition to the corrupting role of money in politics, Loughrey admits he is squatting for dollars. "I did it because I thought I was going to make money," he says. "But if can't make money," he adds, "I will make a social statement."

Loughrey has purchased a variety of "candidate2000" domain names, but is coy about how many or whether he has managed to turn a profit. Meanwhile, he is having fun. "Hello, I'm the dirty rat who bought Backus2000.com and Backus2000.org," Loughrey e-mailed Vermont U.S. senatorial candidate Jan Backus. "I'm wondering if you would be interested in control over them at cost?" Loughrey said the $85 price for Backus reflected his sentiments that Backus was not as bad as the GOP incumbent, Sen. Jim Jeffords. But Backus wasn't impressed with the discount. Instead, she cried "extortion" and turned him down, as did fellow Democratic challenger Ed Flanagan.

There is a certain irony to Loughrey's targeting of Vermont. One of his complaints against politicians is their acceptance of out-of-state money and backing. In the same breath, he says he chose Vermont politicians' domain names "because they were available" and hopes "Vermonters won't be too upset" at the outside interference. The sites were available, in part, because Vermont's candidates for local and statewide office still rely more on door-to-door campaigning, parades and spaghetti suppers than the Internet to get out their message. They are subject to the country's strictest campaign-finance reform laws that place mandatory caps on both spending and contributions. So while the Bush for President campaign can afford to buy up such domain names as georgewbushbites.com and georgewbushsucks.org, just to keep them off the market, Vermont local pols rely on a modest and rather boring Web presence.

But failure to do so can be costly, as candidates are now finding out. Loughrey used one of those domains to create a phony Web page for Vermont Republican Sen. James Jeffords. The Jeffords2000.org site blasts the senator for taking contributions from oil, tobacco and anti-environmental PACs. Jeffords press secretary Heidi Mohlman did not dispute the factual content of the page but noted, presumably in Jeffords defense, that the senator "doesn't discriminate against anyone who wants to give him money."

As a U.S. senator, Jeffords is not affected by the state's campaign finance restrictions, which are directed at state office holders. He has both the resources and the clout to go after Loughrey, and most importantly, the will. His office believes that Loughrey may have violated the law and is currently "exploring options." Jeffords supported a bill passed by the Congress in 1999 that attempts to clamp down on cyber-squatting. Aimed mostly at commercial violations, it bans the bad-faith registration or trafficking in domain names identical or confusingly similar to a distinctive trademark. A judge could revoke a pirated domain name and award damages up to $100,000.

The bill, which relies largely on civil rather than criminal redress, also allows suits against people who register the domain name of a person "without that person's consent, with the specific intent to profit from such name by selling the domain name for financial gain to that person or any third party." The state attorney general's office is looking into whether it has jurisdiction. While Vermonters are not taking the free speech issues surrounding domain-name sales lightly, they are also enjoying a good giggle over the tempest in an e-pot.

Salon News A Salon-eye view of the day's news, with investigative reports, analysis and interviews with newsmakers.