Colbert Accepts Donation (Salary) from Corporate Lobbyist (Employer)
Much as it hurts to say this, Stephen Colbert could learn something about campaign law from Fred Thompson. When Thompson began fucking around with a presidential bid earlier in the year, he left Law and Order lest his nuanced method acting be construed as free advertising (or as gay, like teh ghey Hollywood Democrats!) Colbert, who announced his candidacy as both a Democrat and Republican for the South Carolina primaries on the Colbert Report Tuesday night, faces an even riskier situation if he actually runs, since he would be actively campaigning (yeah yeah in the jokey persona, but still) on teevee. Bureaucracy of bureacracies the Federal Election Commission (FEC) thinks this is some huge problem, some violation of their pwecious wittle laws. You know, the same perfect laws that allow Fred Thompson to run for President of the United States of America.
According to some expert on Radar yesterday, "it looks like Colbert's getting a corporate contribution from his Report in the form of air time and production costs," which is the most illegal thing an American can do. And as Kenneth Vogel writes in today's Politico , the enforcement of these regulations will depend on how much of a "joke" Colbert's run is -- top secret info here, but insiders are saying this might be a stunt for publicity, or "publicity stunt," in industry jargon.
Colbert signed papers to get on the two parties' ballots on Wednesday, and now has a really Java-heavy campaign site with a downloadable petition. LOL downloads! Stephen Colbert is so fucking funny -- he uses the internet for political purposes!
Colbert 4Prez [Colbert08.org]
Colbert 'run' risks breaking law [Politico]