Campaign Reformers Say Stephen Colbert's FEC Joke Has Gone Far Enough

[Ian David]

Campaign Reformers Say Stephen Colbert's FEC Joke Has Gone Far Enough

Your average meeting of the Federal Election Commission is lucky to attract one reporter - usually Ken Doyle, the senior editor of the trade publication BNA's Money & Politics Report. "I've been there many times when he and I were only people in the audience," campaign finance lawyer Brett Kappel told TPM.

But when Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert shows up to FEC headquarters in downtown Washington on Thursday, things will be a bit different. A staffer for the FEC said they expected the hearing room to be full and have created a waiting list and an overflow room to handle the reporters and onlookers expected to attend.

Sounds like a circus, right? That's what Colbert -- who attracted a huge crowd when he filed the request in-person at FEC headquarters last month -- has been going for all along: poking fun at the FEC and the nation's lax campaign finance regulations.

For its part, the commission has been treating Colbert's request like any other. It's created some quirky moments, like when Colbert had to assure the commission that the cash he collected outside their office was "received by Mr. Colbert personally as payment for shaking his hand" and wasn't going to his yet-to-be-formed "super PAC."

<snip>

Holman warned that if the FEC granted Colbert's request, "the next request will be for media companies to directly finance unlimited candidate campaigns under the press exemption - an abuse that is already being advocated in some quarters."



More:
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/06/campaign_reformers_say_stephen_colbert_fec_joke_ha.php

[annabanana]

1. Go Stephen! I say his PAC should go forward, following all the

stupid, fig-leaf rules that the FEC has and that the Colbert Nation should pour buckets of money into the most earnest campaign ads that he and his writers can come up with.

It is a forgone conclusion that whatever he does will be the highlight of the whole election season.

[Ian David]

2. I think he's already opened a Pandora's Box, whether or not he stops NOW. n/t

[KurtNYC]

3. I don't get it. Doesn't NBC employ Pat Buchanon and he runs for Pres every 4 yrs?

Re: "the next request will be for media companies to directly finance unlimited candidate campaigns"

Buchanon has been on NBC since Nixon; seems pretty unlimited to me. And he factored in the theft of the 2000 election in Florida.

[jberryhill]

4. That is, indeed, the point

[blogslut]

5. As I said before

By setting up this PAC, Colbert is giving a master class on soft money. It is brilliant.

I'm going to predict that, at the end of this wondrous expose/experiment, the majority of monies collected will go to the charities that Stephen supports.