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Check out Al's link in post #2 (the link I missed earlier). Basically, it describes a case that went to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, then to the Supreme Court.
The Fourth Circuit COA interpreted the U.S. Code the same way I did - that unless the misdemeanor offense for which a person was convicted contained an element that expressly described a "domestic" relationship between the assailant and the victim, it didn't count as a "misdemeanor crime of domestic violence" for the purposes of the section of 18 U.S.C cited earlier.
The Supreme Court disagreed, and said that if there was a domestic relationship between the defendant and the victim, the misdemeanor conviction counts as a MCDV, even if none of the elements of the offense for which the defendant was convicted described a domestic relationship between the defendant and the victim.
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