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Congress Shall Make No Law
Jul 19th, 2011 | 3 responses
So concludes Sean Parnell, president of the Center for Competitive Politics, as he fails to recite the full text of the First Amendment in a Stephen Colbert interview last night:
Colbert has managed to keep all sides of the campaign finance debate worried by setting up his own Super PAC.
Super PACs are a new breed created after several 2010 Supreme Court decisions that struck down some restrictions. They’re “super” because there is no limit to how much money they can receive from an individual, corporation, or union.
They’re limited in that they can’t give money directly to candidates to help in elections. However, they can spend unlimited amounts advocating for or against political candidates on their own.
On Friday Colbert announced that his super PAC would air commercials. For more on Super PACs, check out ProPublica’s Guide to the New World of Campaign Finance.
Parnell might have been better aware of the slyly simple Colbert gotcha; the comedian has had fun like this before.
Five years ago Colbert sat down with Georgia Republican Representative Lynn Westmoreland, at the time one of only two members of the House not to introduce a single piece of legislation in two years. Westmoreland had co-sponsored a measure requiring that the Ten Commandments be displayed in both houses of Congress; Colbert asked Westmoreland to name all 10:
3 Responses to “Congress Shall Make No Law”
Colbert is terrific. Much better than the smarmy Maher and Stewart.
Maher is the worst.
Who is your favorite polcomedian?