Democracy21 and the Campaign Legal Center griped about this in a statement released on Monday:

The long delay in resolving The Media Fund case and the relatively minimal fine imposed on The Media Fund provides another powerful example of why case-by-case enforcement against 527 groups by itself will not work. It also shows why illegal activities by 527 groups will continue to undermine the nation's campaign finance laws, unless the FEC acts to issue proper regulations and impose prohibitive fines.

Unless the FEC moves quickly to make clear to political operatives that they will see much tougher enforcement by the FEC in the 2008 election, including fines commensurate with the size of the violations, we are facing huge illegal expenditures by 527 groups and other groups in the 2008 presidential and congressional elections, for the third federal election in a row.

Meanwhile, the FEC was scheduled on Tuesday to vote on rules changes related to a recent Supreme Court decision that gutted part of the McCain-Feingold law. The commission was considering two alternatives. One would allow corporations, labor unions, and nonprofit groups to pay for so-called issue ads that mention political candidates but compel this funding to be reported to the FEC. The other would permit this funding without any disclosure requirements. An issue ad supposedly concerns a policy matter and doesn't call for electing--or diselecting--anyone. But it can be directed at a candidate. (Think of a spot like this: "Hillary Clinton wants to give homosexuals special rights. Giving homosexuals special rights is wrong. Tell Hillary Clinton that giving special rights to homosexuals is wrong. By the way, did we mention that Hillary Clinton supports special rights for homosexuals?")

So a 527 free-for-all is likely to occur in 2008. Those groups prepared to do whatever it takes to win will be operating under more permissive rules and, best of all for them, will not have to fear violating the laws that do remain.

UPDATE: On Tuesday afternoon, the FEC voted 4 to 1 to approve a rule that partially preserves the ban on using soft money for campaign ads, but the new rule does create a loophole--in keeping with that recent Supreme Court decision--for ads that are deemed, wrongly or rightly, "genuine issue ads." Public Citizen, a reform group, says, "While this rule is the decent outcome from a devastating Supreme Court decision, voters should be aware that far more sham issue ads paid for by corporate interests are likely to overwhelm the airwaves in the upcoming election."