Stephen Colbert's Super Pac!

I got dragged into a few political squabbles with my (conservative) parents while back in Ohio last week. I tried to avoid it, but sometimes it just happens. But as is the case with many "lifelong" conservatives, my parents' political knowledge often tends to be shallow and selective. For instance, neither was familiar with the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling, that essentially affirmed that corporations are "people," and their money "free speech."

 So, my folks might be a bit mystified by Stephen Colbert (of Comedy Central's Colbert Report), and his new "Super PAC." Super PACs are newly possible organizations, who can take unlimited amounts of money from corporations, and they don't have to disclose who they are. So, essentially, a Super PAC (like Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS) could theoretically take millions of dollars from a multi-national corporation, and funnel it into a strategic political race, dwarfing the opposition's spending. It is not inconceivable that foreign interests could effectively "buy" a candidate this way.


So, Colbert established his own Super PAC. Its goals are not clear, though they are surely to lampoon this outrageous circumstance we find ourselves in. Colbert has made two ads that are running in Iowa now. In both cases, he's urging Iowa Straw Poll voters to write in "Rick Parry" (rather than Perry), for unknown reasons. I'm sure we'll find out soon enough. But in the meantime, the videos are pretty amusing.