DN editorial: Colbert shows us just how absurd Citizens United is

MUCH OF what we know about campaign-finance laws we learned from Stephen Colbert.

Which is appropriate, since Stephen Colbert is a comedian and this country's campaign-finance laws are a farce. Exactly two years ago, the Citizens United Supreme Court decision dismantled what few limitations there had been on corporations (or unions, although they have far less money) from contributing to political candidates.

Over the past year, the show has taken "Colbert Nation" on a journey into the world of loopholes, technicalities and legal fictions that govern the way we elect our leaders today. For example, the Federal Elections Commission's decision last spring to grant Colbert permission to form a Political Action Committee was one of the rare times that the dysfunctional agency has agreed on anything in recent years.

In the past year, Colbert has created his own 501(c)4 "social welfare" organization (with the putative goal of "educating" the public that "gay people cause earthquakes") in order to legally funnel money into his PAC without having to reveal the donors, just as Karl Rove has done for real with his "Crossroads GPS" organization.

("What is the difference between that and money laundering?" Colbert asked his on-air legal adviser, Trevor Potter, a former chairman of the FEC. "It's hard to say," said Potter.)

But it was Colbert's recent "decision" to form an "exploratory" committee to run for president in his native South Carolina that brought the most egregious aspects of the Citizens United insanity into focus.

The most idiotic finding in the Citizens United decision was the Supreme Court's touching belief that allowing PACs to use unlimited corporate and union contributions would not corrupt the political system because their activities would not be coordinated with the actual candidates.

Colbert demonstrated just how ridiculous that is by transferring control of his PAC to his boss, Jon Stewart, and, with many winks and nods, promising that they would not coordinate their activities.

It was hilarious TV, but no sillier than the supposed lack of coordination in real politics. Consider, the SuperPAC that reduced Newt Gingrich from frontrunner in Iowa to a fourth-place finish is run by three veterans of Mitt Romney's 2008 campaign. And a Super PAC that eviscerated Romney is headed by a former fundraiser for an organization tied to, you guessed it, Newt Gingrich.

Colbert's antics did not translate to many votes in South Carolina. But he has done an extraordinary public service by focusing on the need for a constitutional amendment to undo Citizens United.

Go to movetoamend.org to see one version.

Victory is within our grasp.