(Image Source: David Shankbone/Wikimedia Commons)

BY MEGAN NOE
 

You're watching multisource politics video news analysis from Newsy. 

No joke: the Federal Election Commission gave approval to comedian Stephen Colbert’s Super PAC -- a ruling some worried could have serious implications for campaign finances.

Colbert exited a meeting with the feds in typical fashion, telling the crowd they had put “liberty on layaway.”

“Moments ago, the Federal Election Commission made their ruling. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry to say … We won! I am a Super PAC, and so can you!” (CBS News)
 
The Colbert Super PAC allows him to raise unlimited amounts of money to support or oppose 2012 election candidates. What’s the point? The Washington Post’s Alexandra Petri explains, the idea is...

“...to poke fun at lax campaign finance laws that treat corporations as people whose feelings will be hurt if they cannot express themselves freely, generally by donating large amounts of money to political candidates.”

But Colbert took it a step further-- securing a media exemption that will allow him to talk about the PAC on his show as much as he wants and use Viacom resources, without the parent company having to report it.

An analyst on Bloomberg explains-- any ads for the SuperPAC can only run during Colbert’s show.

“This is important because you have other media companies who are paying close attention to this. If they had something similar going on, if you had Sarah Palin forming a Super PAC and running ads for it on Fox programming for example, that would essentially equal an in-kind contribution. The fact that this media exception that was carved out is very narrow means this only affects Colbert Nation.”

Colbert’s push may be tongue-in-cheek, but a democratic strategist on CNN says the issues he’s raising are anything but funny.

“The real, not so subtle message here is the obscene amount of money- undisclosed money- that has been allowed in our politics today...and that is exactly what has prompted all of the riff that Colbert has done on his late-night show now that has become so popular. But it is an obscene amount of money that is corrosive, is debilitating our democracy, and I think it’s bad for elections, bad for the American people.”

No one is really sure what Colbert plans to do with the unlimited funds he began to gather from the crowd outside his hearing.

Politico’s Ken Vogul reports -- the comedian was “literally wading through the crowd with a credit card swiper.”

And when New York Times asked Colbert what his plans were for the money, he said...

“‘...I don’t know. Give it to me and let’s find out.’”

Transcript by Newsy.