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Saturday, January 14. 2012
Stephen Colbert For President!
This just in: Stephen Colbert is running for president! If you watched his show on Comedy Central Wednesday Night, you’ll remember his segment about him having 5% support in polls taken of Republicans in South Carolina, the next state on the primary calendar. He told his loyal viewers — his “Nation” — to tune in Thursday Night to find out if he would actually enter the race, at least in the Palmetto State.
Well he has, sort of, in a non-committal, let’s start an exploratory committee kind of way. If you’ve been watching The Colbert Report for the past 12 months, you know he started a PAC, a Super Pac that allows the donors to remain anonymous. Just for unfettered disclosure, I donated to his PAC when donors had to be identified, just to see my name flash across the screen in the crawl at the bottom of the picture.
Colbert, or maybe his show, hired a Republican attorney and former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, Trevor Potter, to get his Super PAC started and then Thursday Night Potter helped Colbert legally hand over his Super PAC to his fellow Comedy Central host, Jon Stewart.
If you haven’t seen it then click on Colbert’s Website and watch it online. The episode is hilarious. Well, most of his shows are funny. There was that one show when Potter told Colbert he could make his PAC the type that could keep all if its donors secret and Colbert was almost speechless — and it looked absolutely genuine. And then Potter pulled the necessary paper work out of his brief case and Colbert promptly signed it.
Shortly thereafter Colbert asked how the secret PAC was different from money laundering. To his credit, Potter said it wasn’t much different, if at all.
What does it say about the Republican field if a comedian, who is actually a moderate, if not a liberal, out-polls most of the party’s declared candidates? How will it impact the race? It’s unlikely Colbert will have a serious impact politically, but what it will do is provide his fans with months of comedic material other comics (i.e. Jay Leno, Dave Letterman, Jimmy Fallon, Craig Ferguson and his pal, Jon Stewart) can only comment on during their shows.
In a larger scope, Colbert’s entry into the South Carolina Republican Primaries brings his mockery of the system to a far bigger audience than what he has on The Colbert Report. For at least the past six months pundits on both sides of the aisle have been shocked, humored, dumfounded and disappointed by the field, often at the same time.
The money being spent to keep the most unviable of candidates in the race has angered many people, pundits and public alike. A year ago conservatives were beside themselves with glee at the Citizens United decision from the Supreme Court that essentially said money equals free speech—well, free in the “you can’t shut me up” sort of way.That’s how Colbert’s Super Pac, “Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow,” came about; Colbert set out to show the world just how easy and immoral the current political system is now that unlimited money can corrupt any federal election, in particular, the presidential election.
People have been crabbing about money in our political system for decades. Years ago Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Russ Feingold (D-WI) authored a campaign finance bill that was passed and signed into law. Well, actually, it wasn’t that bill George W. Bush signed into law in 2002. Instead, the version presented by the House of Representatives was signed — but it still got to keep the more impressive moniker, “McCain-Feingold.”
Don’t you just love politics!
Okay, like any bill that might have a great good for the American populace, before it could get to the president’s signing pen it had to be changed, or in the case of any campaign finance bill, rendered toothless. You seriously think most, or even half, of 535 members of Congress are in favor of turning off their money spigot? Come here, my naïve little friend. Have I got a deal for you!
But watering down McCain-Feingold wasn’t enough. Nooooo … my dear friends! The parts that weren’t watered down or eliminated actually restricted “Big Business” and Labor from spending unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns. So, various entities started taking the government to court over the bill, culminating in the 2010 decision by the Supreme Court affectionately titled, “Citizens United.”
Now, corporations are people too and money equals free speech.
Enter the best satirist of our time, and maybe all time: Stephen Colbert. Not only is he mocking the sale of our political system, but he’s exposing the biggest lie of all: the Super PAC’s are independent from the candidates. It’s hard to believe anyone actually believes that lie, but Colbert and now Stewart, can put it on display, as only a couple of serious satirists can. Now I’m anxious to see how Colbert skewers “exploratory committees.”
Until Colbert and Stewart came along, the joke was on us. Maybe they can reverse that punchline.
As a donor I actually received a press release via e-mail:
Under New Management!
BASIC CABLE, USA – Americans For A Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, an FEC registered Super PAC, today announced the addition of Jon Stewart to its executive board (along with the subtraction of Stephen Colbert).
With this change the group, which had been known colloquially as Colbert Super PAC, can now be referred to as The Definitely Not Coordinating With Stephen Colbert Super PAC. They have already begun updating all of their letterhead with sharpie.
“I am excited to take the reins of this completely independent organization, and begin to air ads in South Carolina,” said New President and Noncommunication Director Jon Stewart. “But I want to be clear: Stephen and I have in no way have worked out a series of Morse-code blinks to convey information with each other on our respective shows.” Colbert is currently exploring a run for President of the United States of South Carolina. Because of this, he cannot be associated with any Super PACs, although he has asked Americans For A Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow to forward any periodicals of an “adult nature.” *
Americans A Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow is an independent, expenditure-only committee founded by Stephen Colbert in the wake of the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, then handed down to Jon Stewart like a pair of old dungarees.
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Thank you Stephen for pointing out what ought to be obvious. Let’s hope the American public can tear itself away from the Kardashians and Dancing With The Stars long enough to find out why this issue matters and why they ought to do something about it.
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