Stephen Colbert exposes the insanity of our election laws

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Former FEC chairman Trevor Potter joins Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart to expose the insanity of our election laws as Stewart takes the reigns of the Colbert Super-PAC so that Stephen Colbert can form an exploratory committee for his possible candidacy for president of the United States of South Carolina.

From the New York Times, Stephen Colbert to Explore (or Pretend to) Run for President:

If anyone can make a mockery of the newest campaign finance innovation, the “super PAC,” it’s Stephen Colbert.

Mr. Colbert, the Comedy Central television host, has made jokes at the expense of super PACs for months — forming his own group, soliciting money for it, then running an ad that featured Buddy Roemer, a long-shot candidate who has criticized the Supreme Court decision that allows the existence of the free-spending PACs so long as they do not explicitly coordinate with candidates.

On Thursday night’s “Colbert Report,” Mr. Colbert took it a big step further, handing control of his group to his friend and fellow host Jon Stewart so that he can legally run for president, or at least pretend to. Mr. Colbert, who has comically flirted with — and mocked the possibility of — runs for political office before, said he would form an “exploratory committee for president of the United States of South Carolina.”

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But before Mr. Colbert moved forward with any bid, first he had to distance himself from his super PAC, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow.

“You cannot be a candidate and run a super PAC. That would be coordinating with yourself,” Trevor Potter, Mr. Colbert’s lawyer and a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, told him on Thursday’s show. But “you could have it run by somebody else,” even a friend or business partner, Mr. Potter said — illuminating what critics say is an inappropriate loophole in the law. So Mr. Colbert brought out Mr. Stewart of “The Daily Show,” who played along with the joke, saying, “I’d be honored to” help.

Sarcastically emphasizing that they would not coordinate Mr. Colbert’s real or imagined presidential race with Mr. Stewart’s ad spending, Mr. Colbert said “From now on, I will have to talk about my plans on my TV show.” Mr. Stewart, whose show immediately precedes Mr. Colbert’s at 11 p.m., shot back, “I don’t even know when it’s on.”

The two men then signed what they said was the necessary paperwork and discussed making Mr. Colbert a volunteer for the super PAC, which Mr. Potter said might be possible.

Though humorous, Mr. Colbert’s discussions about super PACs have had an educational and perhaps energizing effect among some members of his young audience. When Mr. Potter told the two comedians that “being business partners does not count as coordination, legally,” there were groans of disgust from some in the studio audience.

The "Felonious Five" of the U.S. Supreme Court shoud be impeached and disbarred for what they have done by unleashing the demons of Super-PACs with Citizens United v. FEC to destroy our democracy. We must amend the U.S. Constitution to make it clear that corporations are not people and money is not speech.