Roberts Court Overturns Yet Another Precedent in Favor of Corporate Campaign Cash

basso · Jan 28, 2010

SamFisher said:

Sure. What is he running for?
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he spent millions trying to defeat W, said it was his life's work.

SamFisher · Jan 28, 2010

basso said:

he spent millions trying to defeat W, said it was his life's work.
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Then maybe he shouldn't be allowed to do it, notwithstanding how much better off he would have made us had he been successful. Under the current supreme court, however, it looks unlikely.

LALaw · Jan 29, 2010

Corporations as people?
Freedom of speech as money?
What have they done to us Ma

pgabriel · Jul 7, 2011

Colber proceeding with Super Pac, this is hilarious

We're not laughing
Colbert's Super PAC satirizes Supreme Court's troubling campaign finance rulings.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/7642344.html#ixzz1RRIJDIgh

When the Supreme Court ruled that corporations have free speech rights with the ability to dump unlimited loads of cash into electioneering on behalf of favored candidates, campaign reform advocates predicted a future flood of anonymous special-interest dollars into the electoral process.

No one anticipated that a TV comedian bent on satirizing the high court's decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission would receive FEC approval for a so-called super political action committee that can collect unlimited and undisclosed individual, union and corporate contributions to back chosen candidates.

Stephen Colbert, who inhabits the persona of a blowhard commentator on the Comedy Central cable channel's Colbert Report , got the OK from the commission by a 5-1 vote for his Colbert Super PAC. It will collect funds from undisclosed sources to produce presumably satirical campaign advertisements to run on his show and elsewhere. The owner of the Comedy Channel, Viacom, would not have to report in-kind contributions for material aired on Colbert's show under a press exemption, but would have to do so for ads run elsewhere. In a previous FEC decision, the commission had determined that Viacom was a nonpartisan press entity.

In a rally outside the FEC offices in Washington, Colbert used the decision to continue zinging the Supreme Court decision. In a call-and-response with the crowd, Colbert shouted, "Knock Knock," eliciting "Who's there?" Colbert replied, "Unlimited union and corporate campaign contributions," getting the follow-up, "Unlimited union and corporate campaign contributions who?"

The comedian's punch line: "That's the thing. I don't think I should have to tell you."

Although Colbert supplied the wisecracks last week, the Supreme Court had the last laugh. In another 5-4 decision bolstering the power of special interest cash in elections, the court invalidated an Arizona law that provided additional financial support for candidates who abide by spending restrictions but face opponents who exceed them. Not only has the court majority allowed the unrestricted and unreported flow of corporate contributions into the electoral process, it now also prevents states from leveling the playing field for candidates without such resources.

As Justice Elena Kagan wrote in the minority's dissent, "Less corruption, more speech. Robust campaigns leading to the election of representatives not beholden to the few, but accountable to the many. The people of Arizona might have expected a decent respect for those objectives. Today, they do not get it."

Such decisions have provided Colbert with rich sources for his humor. Unfortunately, in gutting Arizona's Clean Elections Act, the Supreme Court majority continues to bolster the ability of special interests to buy elections and put their handpicked candidates in office.

There's nothing funny about that.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/7642344.html#ixzz1RRIAIVp3
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Roberts Court Overturns Yet Another Precedent in Favor of Corporate Campaign Cash

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Roberts Court Overturns Yet Another Precedent in Favor of Corporate Campaign Cash

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