Colbert PAC

Stephen Colbert is my hero. This time, he’s taking on the US political PAC system, to prove how corrupt and nefarious it can be. It’s unlikely his campaign will amount to actual reform, but it’s great that he’s planting the seed of knowledge in his viewership, at least. The Daily Show gets a lot more attention, but for sheer, ballsy satire, Colbert is the man.

In August, during the run-up to the Ames straw poll, some Iowans were baffled to turn on their TVs and see a commercial that featured shots of ruddy-cheeked farm families, an astronaut on the moon and an ear of hot buttered corn. It urged viewers to cast write-in votes for Rick Perry by spelling his name with an “a” — “for America.” A voice-over at the end announced that the commercial had been paid for by an organization called Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, which is the name of Colbert’s super PAC, an entity that, like any other super PAC, is entitled to raise and spend unlimited amounts of soft money in support of candidates as long as it doesn’t “coordinate” with them, whatever that means. Of such super-PAC efforts, Colbert said, “This is 100 percent legal and at least 10 percent ethical.”

Just as baffling as the Iowa corn ads — at least to the uninitiated — were some commercials Colbert produced taking the side of the owners during the recent N.B.A. lockout. These were also sponsored by Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, but they were “made possible,” according to the voice-over, by Colbert Super PAC SHH Institute. Super PAC SHH (as in “hush”) is Colbert’s 501(c)(4). He has one of those too — an organization that can accept unlimited amounts of money from corporations without disclosing their names and can then give that money to a regular PAC, which would otherwise be required to report corporate donations. “What’s the difference between that and money laundering?” Colbert said to me delightedly.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/magazine/stephen-colbert.html?_r=2&WT.mc_id=MG-E-FB-SM-LIN-HMS-010412-NYT-NA&WT.mc_ev=click&smid=fb-nytimes&pagewanted=all

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