POLITICS

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ANOTHER REASON JOHN EDWARDS IS IN TROUBLE

HUFFINGTON POST REPORTS THAT FROM THE Vanity Fair 100, Hillary Clinton
has received over $121,000, Barack Obama has gotten nearly $63,000 but
John Edwards doesn't even show up in the top eight of the two major
parties. This is significant because in a media-obsessed society such as
ours, the sort of people Vanity Fair think are hot have an inordinate
influence on public thinking.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/10/18/the-vanity-fair-_n_68910.html

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HAS STEPHEN COLBERT BROKEN CAMPAIGN LAWS?

KENNETH P. VOGEL, POLITICO - Hopefully, there's a good campaign finance
lawyer out there in Colbert Nation, because its leader could be headed
for a showdown with the Federal Election Commission. . . If he continues
moving toward a presidential campaign, particularly if he, or Comedy
Central, keeps spending money exploring and promoting by hyping it on
his nightly half-hour news parody show, he could get himself and his
network in trouble for violating election laws, including those barring
corporate campaign contributions. . .

"You don't get a different set of rules because you're running as a
joke," said Marc Elias, a leading Washington election lawyer who
represents Democratic candidates. . .

On his show Tuesday, Colbert made it official - or at least as official
as it gets on his show. . . On the next night's show, he signed the
paperwork, but only after announcing he was crossing out part of an oath
pledging not to "knowingly violate any election law." . . . He also said
he was posting a downloadable copy of the Democratic Party's petition on
his website and urged South Carolina voters to sign it. But on
Thursday's show, he said his lawyers advised him he couldn't use his
show's site to campaign, so he posted the petition to the new campaign
site.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1007/6450.html

RADAR - An expert with experience in several prominent Republican
campaigns says it looks like Colbert's getting a corporate contribution
from his Report in the form of air time and production costs-that's
prohibited by the Federal Election Commissions Act. "It's something that
I could see people raising," said the former strategist. "If I was
running against Colbert, I would raise this as a campaign issue."

Viacom, parent company of Comedy Central, has been down this road before
with the Showtime reality program The American Candidate, a program
about fake presidential candidates in the 2004 elections. In that
instance, they got their hotshot Washington attorneys on the case and
asked the Federal Election Commission to provide an opinion as to
whether or not the show fell under the Federal Election Commissions Act.
The FEC said the show was good to go, but with strong reminders that
corporations cannot make "any contribution or expenditure in connection
with a federal election" and that "any cost incurred in covering or
carrying a news story, commentary or editorial by any broadcast station
(including a cable television operator, programmer, or producer),
newspaper magazine, or other periodical publication, is not a
contribution unless the facility is owned or controlled by any political
party, political committee, or candidate."

http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2007/10/colbusted-colbert.php

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