Colbert super PAC ad promises "orgy of pure distortion"

The super PAC backing comedian Stephen Colbert is his pseudo-run for president is out with its third ad in three days, this one in the form of a negative attack ad on negative attack ads.

The spot, "Double Negative," points out that super PACs backing Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have spent millions to run attack ads designed to bring down the respective rival candidates. The first hint that the ad isn't your typical campaign spot is when the deep-voiced narrator is heard saying, "it's enough to make you sick" - as a young man is shown throwing up into a brown paper bag.

The spot then shows smiling people framed against an American flag as the narrator asks for donations to the Colbert-backing super PAC, known both as "Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow" and "The Definitely Not Coordinating With Stephen Colbert Super PAC." The notations, the narrator says, will allow the super PAC to "destroy" Gingrich and Romney and their super PACs "with the merciless ad torrent so fierce they'll wish they'd never been incorporated."

"An orgy of pure distortion leaving nothing behind but the clean campaign we all deserve," he continues - as a nuclear explosion appears onscreen.

The spot is running just two times today on WCSC, the CBS affiliate in Charleston, South Carolina, according to Sandy Funderburk, general sales manager at the station. A so-far unseen ad from the super PAC, focused on Colbert, will run on Thursday. The latest spot follows an ad from the Colbert-backing super PAC encouraging South Carolinians to vote for Herman Cain, who has suspended his candidacy, as well as one that compares Romney to serial killer Jack the Ripper. (Cain told Fox411 he found the spot focused on him "clever and humorous," adding, "Anyone who finds what Mr. Colbert is doing offensive, should simply lighten up.") 

Colbert and compatriot Jon Stewart have been gleefully mocking the laws around super PACs on their late-night Comedy Central shows, in part by spotlighting the supposed ban on coordination between a candidate and the super PAC supporting him.

Colbert, who transferred his super PAC to Stewart when he jokingly announced "an exploratory committee to lay the groundwork for my possible candidacy for the president of the United States of South Carolina," describes super PACs as "100 percent legal and at least 10 percent ethical." (For what it's worth, Colbert can't at this point actually get on the primary ballot in South Carolina, which holds its primary Saturday.)

Donors can pour unlimited money into super PACs in order to support or attack candidates, and thus influence election outcomes. The groups, who are technically unaffiliated with candidates even though they are often run by their former staffers, were made possible by the 2010 "Citizens United" Supreme Court decision that effectively classified money as speech.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

On "The Daily Show" last night, Stewart and Colbert discussed the spots while monitored by lawyer Trevor Potter, asking the former head of the Federal Election Commission to interrupt them if they said anything that broke the law. (Potter never did, though at one point he said the men could be subject to a fine for their comments - a fine they could pay with super PAC money.)

The comedians also noted that while Colbert can't tell Stewart what he wants, he can say it to the public while speaking on television - just like Gingrich and other candidates have done. (Watch at left.)

[Steven_Lockwood]

I really want to see Colbert.. I mean Cain... win tomorrow . It would restore my faith and hope for america.

[MGDean]

@paddyoo: Colbert is milking the situation, yet with reason i
believe. He has created this "exploratory committee" in order to find out if he wants A: Run or B: endorse a candidate. With constant ridicule of both Romney and Gingrich I wouldn't be too surprised if all of this anticipation is part of his presidential endorsement of Ron Paul that possibly would have been overlooked otherwise. OR at least that is my hope. Four senators of South Carolina have endorsed Ron Paul, another from South Carolinaian Steven Colbert could be exactly what he needs to win. His Rally today would be the perfect place to announce it as well. But Who knows. RON PAUL 2012

[George1958a]

Colbert, giving you the reach around so as to distract you from Barry reaming you up the backside.

[George1958a]

Colbert, giving you the reach around so as to distract you from Barry reaming you you up the backside.

[noloyalisti]

It's amazing to me that it takes comedians to educate Americans about the complete takeover of our elections and democracy by greedy uncared giant corporations and the un-American Top 1% that run them.

This is why we should all join the actions tomorrow to rid America of the influence of dangerous wackos like Robmee.

Time to stop the Top 1% scam (the illegitimate "Supreme" Court Citizens United) by Occupying the Courts tomorrow. Complete list of events here:

http://movetoamend.org/occupythecourts

[BWB2020]

Sounds like actor Sam Elliott narrating "Double Negative".

Good job, Dude! Marvel should have kept you as Gen. Ross! It was good to see you away from the cowboy shtick for once...

[paddyoo]

Whew. OK. I get it. It was really funny the first time. I laughed hard. But enough. Is Colbert going to beat this horse until it's dismembered at the glue factory. It's just not that funny any more, like any joke that keeps being retold. Listen. I can not only laugh at this (the first time, anyway), but I understand where all these super-pac opponents are coming from. In point of fact, Colbert isn't affected by the Supreme Court decision to allow unbridled spending because it doesn't matter whether some super-pac spends $5 or $5 billion on a political ad, Colbert isn't going to be influenced because he's one of the SPA -- Smart People of America. He has the intellectual depth to separate the propaganda and B.S. in these ads from the truth. No, spending restrictions aren't needed for Colbert. Spending limits are needed for all those Stupid People of America out there, who need to be saved from their own stupidity. They're simply not as smart as Colbert or his paternalistic friends in the Democratic Party. You know, the real beauty of this issue is that it encapsulates in one tidy little package all the disturbing criticism one hears of liberals -- that they are effete snobs, that they fancy themselves elitists, that they were placed on the planet to show the Stupid People of America the correct political path in life. I don't dispute that there are, in fact, really stupid people out there who are so shallow, mentally, that they're on the phone right now ordering a couple sets of Ginzu knives because "this offer won't last forever." But for me that's one of the prices you pay for living in a democracy. You have to live with the effete snobs and the dummies, and, though I don't admire the Stupid People of America, I also don't like the effete snobs telling everyone else what's good for them, whether it's some cockamamie member of the San Francisco Board of Nannyvisors telling parents they can't buy Happy Meals for their toddlers or Stephen Colbert himself.

[kansas1946]

I don't know, but your post sounds pretty snobbish and elitist to me. The decision from the Supreme Court to treat money and corporations as individuals and thus protected under the free speech clause in the Constitution is pretty close to the worst decision that they have ever made. And one thing us snobbbish, elitist, liberals know, is that with unlimited funding allowed in political campaigns is corrupting, and favors the very "elitists" that you are so distainful of.

[blau808]

Pot, meet kettle.

[wxwizard1]

Funny, on target, and effective!

Great job Colbert!! You can have my vote!

[tom2275]

The "deep-voiced narrator" is Sam Elliot.

[Shibbol]

Not only is this a very funny piece of footage...it keeps hammering home the points of how far we have strayed from reality, democracy, and sanity with Citizens United. Great work, Stephen, and whoever your accomplices in democracy may be!