There’s chatter in the rightosphere today about the Republican National Committee’s commitment to online outreach. Even since losing Patrick Ruffini earlier this year, the RNC has operated without an eCampaign director — a critical void that has Republican online guru Mike Turk very worried.

The issue came to a head when the RNC blew off a request from law professor and blogger Lawrence Lessig and other techies seeking the RNC’s help with access to video footage from upcoming Republican debates.

Some friends (old and new) and I are therefore calling upon both major political parties to make this problem go away. Not by changing the law, or by supporting some expensive and time consuming litigation. But instead, by simply promising to require of any network broadcasting Presidential debates (at least) that they license the debates freely after they are initially broadcast — either by putting the debates into the public domain, or by permitting anyone to use or remix the contents of those debates, for any reason whatsoever, so long as there is attribution back to any purported copyright holder.

What seems like a logical request got no traction from the RNC. It prompted Turk’s tough talk and a lengthy response from David All. I think David gets it right by noting that the letter includes very few Republican or conservative signers, which was Lessig’s own mistake. In fact, it might as well have been signed in 2004 because all of the people on it are from the first stage of the Revolution.

But putting the logistics of the letter aside, David raises an even bigger point — one that cannot be ignored any longer. The RNC needs to do something about its pathetic online operation. David’s solution is to tap Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis to lead a special task force to address the issue.

As someone who has long supported an Anuzis chairmanship of the RNC (here and here), I’m certainly thrilled to see others recognize his leadership ability. I don’t know if Saul has the patience or the time, but it’s a better idea than anything else trickling out of the RNC these days.

UPDATE — 4:04 p.m.: Mike Turk responds to David’s post and this one. I also posted a letter from my former boss at Human Events who expressed great frustration with the GOP.