Political news publication,  Politico, is reporting that Jack Abramoff, a Republican lobbyist and person who was involved in a major political scandal, has unsuccessfully tried to get the JackAbramoff.com domain name from its owners. Making this more of an interesting situation is the current owner of the domain name.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has owned JackAbramoff.com since at least February of 2008. The domain name was registered to someone from Louisville, Kentucky back in 2006, although I don’t know if that person had a relationship with the DCCC or Abramoff.

At the present time, JackAbramoff.com forwards to a page within the DCCC website, which does not paint Mr. Abramoff in a good light. The landing page has a file visitors can play with a voicemail from Mr. Abramoff asking about the domain name and how he can get it “amicably.” Based on the landing page, it seems doubtful an amicable solution will be possible.

Mr. Abramoff may file a UDRP for the domain name, and he could also file litigation to get possession of the domain name. I am not a lawyer, and I won’t speculate about his chances for success on either front, especially because I’ve been surprised when reading some UDRP decisions in similar scenarios.

One thing I will say is that we often hear about this type of thing occurring in elections at all levels throughout the US – from small local elections to national elections. I guess I shouldn’t ever be surprised when I hear about a local politician owning the name of another candidate when the DCCC owns the exact match domain name of a well known and controversial member of the GOP.

I’m not a big fan of buying domain names based on trends. From my perspective, it doesn’t usually pay off and it can cost a lot of money to buy domain names based on trends, since new trends take off every single day… and that doesn’t take trademark issues into consideration, which can have added risks and costs.

That being said, it seems that one “trend” domain name is paying off. If you aren’t aware, Tim Tebow is the new starting quarterback for the NFL’s Denver Broncos. Tebow starred at University of Florida, and he wasn’t projected to be a great NFL quarterback due to his throwing style.

Tebow is widely known as a religious man, and when he was shown in a bowing position, presumably praying, the term “Tebowing” was born. In similar fashion to the planking craze, people started Tebowing everywhere. They took and posted pictures of themselves Tebowing, and the Tebowing craze took off. As you can imagine, a person in Denver registered Tebowing.com in late October, and the quickly launched website features pictures of people Tebowing around the world.

This evening during the Broncos game vs. the New York Jets, the NFL Network showed a montage of photos of people Tebowing. On the top of the graphic, there was a notice that the photos were courtesy of Tebowing.com.

I suppose trend domaining does pay off.

I wrote about doing this before, and I’ve taken the public and private recommendations under consideration. I would like to offer the opportunity to publish a guest post on my blog in exchange for a $500 contribution to my favorite non-profit organization, The Ronald McDonald House of New York. So far this year, we’ve helped to raise nearly $8,000 for RMH.

Here are the details for this special offer:

1. The company will make a $500 contribution directly to RMH and not to me prior to posting the article.
2. The guest post must be related to domain names.
3. The article will be posted Monday – Friday (I can’t guarantee how long it will be the top post though).
4. I will personally pay Francois to sponsor the post on the top section of Domaining.com for 24 hours.
5. I will use Twitter and Facebook to help publicize the article.
6. The article will be clearly marked as a guest post, and it will mention that the company donated $500 for the right to have the post.
7. Guest post may be used to list domain names for sale, announce a new product, discuss a current product, show people how to use a product or service, general awareness for a company…etc, as long as it relates to domain names.
8. I make no promises that this will bring you business or lead to a sale. My main priority is to raise money for RMH while not disturbing the flow of the blog.
9. This will be on a first come, first served basis, although I reserve the right to do this more than once if I wish. Let me know via email or via comment if you want to participate.

Many organizations like to take advantage of news events for political reasons. Oftentimes, especially with local campaigns, these organizations will register associated domain names.

I saw that noted attorney Gloria Allred held a press conference at the Friar’s Club this afternoon with a woman who alleged that Presidential candidate Herman Cain was inappropriate with her. The live press conference was broadcast live on many tv stations and websites.

The accuser’s name is Sharon Bialek, and I was interested in seeing if any organization had registered her domain name for possible political gain. It’s likely that people would Google her name during the next few news cycles (at least), and if someone had a website already operating on the domain name, it could have been used for political reasons. A registration a few days prior to the press conference would have been very interesting to note.

As the Whois information indicates, it appears to have been registered to someone in Maryland on November 7 (today), very likely during the press conference. At the present time, the domain name resolves to a Godaddy landing page, so I don’t know if there’s any political intent or of the buyer simply wanted to buy it for speculative purposes.