AP
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Comedian Stephen Colbert wants to grab "a megaphone made of cash" so he can shout out the demands of his supporters in next year's elections.
Political talk isn't cheap, so he's setting up a special political committee that will let him raise unlimited gobs of money from corporations, unions and individuals.
When he files the paperwork later Friday at the Federal Election Commission, he'll also ask for a media exemption that will let him talk about the fundraising on his show, "The Colbert Report," without violating campaign finance laws.
Colbert, who poses as an ultraconservative on the Comedy Central show, said in March that he was forming a political committee. But that kind of committee has stricter rules both on fundraising and how he could mention it on TV.
TPM:
Colbert said he expected the FEC to take his request seriously."I'm making an actual request. I want to find out whether I actually have to list Viacom and the fact that I have a show as a gift in-kind," Colbert said. "And if I don't, I can't wait to use the resources of my show."
After passing through security to deliver his letter along with his lawyer, Colbert delivered a speech before hundreds of fans gathered outside the FEC building as FBI employees watched from the windows of the J. Edgar Hoover Building across the street.
"As we stand here on this historic site, where 250 years ago today George Washington filed his papers to form his independent expenditures non-connected political action committee, we are also standing at an American crossroads -- not to be confused with American Crossroads, the name of Karl Rove's 'Super PAC," Colbert told the crowd. "I mean a metaphorical crossroads, because the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United has proved that unlimited corporate money equals free speech. But by the transitive property of elections, does it not also follow that no corporate money equals silence?"
"I want to form Colbert Super PAC for all the PAC-less Americans, to give you a voice in the form of my voice," Colbert said.
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