Video: Colbert Super-PAC Donates Its Leftovers

"If you eat a ham in the shape of a rival's head you gain all their knowledge…and all their sodium too."<a href="http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/398530/september-29-2011/colbert-super-pac---ham-rove-s-comeback">Colbert Nation</a>

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.

The Ham Rove Memorial Fund, rumored to be linked to Stephen Colbert’s super-PAC (okay, definitely linked), announced it will donate more than $135,000 to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit organization that aims to expose money’s effect on elections and public policy. Colbert, host of Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, won a Peabody Award this year for his work in educating the American public about the implications of the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling through Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow (ABTT), his satirical super-PAC.

On his December 13 show, Colbert announced that he legally wasn’t required to disclose the whereabouts of the nearly $774,000 remaining in the war chest of his super-PAC after the election. Coincidentally, the same exact amount was just donated to a new memorial fund named in honor of ABTT’s former chief strategist Ham Rove, a bespectacled slab of ham who suffered a tragic end when he fell upon a knife that Colbert happened to be swinging wildly in his immediate vicinity.

The Ham Rove Memorial Fund then divvied up the cash to the CRP as well as the Campaign Legal Center, another organization that fights for transparency in politics, several Hurricane Sandy relief organizations, and the Yellow Ribbon Fund, which helps wounded troops returning home from war.

This is how change happens.

One story at a time.

This investigative reporting takes time too. Months of research. Weeks of writing, editing, and fact checking—and putting together the photography, art, video, and audio that tell the stories in a new way, illuminating new perspectives and voices.

We can afford to take our time because we don’t report to oligarchs or corporations. We report to you, and for you.

And the stakes are high. Democracy is on the defense. We’ve been exposing corruption and scandal for five decades, and this is a pivotal moment in our country’s history. Will democracy prevail? We won’t wait for time to tell—independent journalism is essential for democracy, and we’ll keep doing our part to amplify the free press.

So, we’re asking: Will you join the fight? Mother Jones has been here for 50 years, and we need your support to fuel the future of investigative journalism. Mark our 50th anniversary with a gift of any amount.

This is how change happens.

One story at a time.

This investigative reporting takes time too. Months of research. Weeks of writing, editing, and fact checking—and putting together the photography, art, video, and audio that tell the stories in a new way, illuminating new perspectives and voices.

We can afford to take our time because we don’t report to oligarchs or corporations. We report to you, and for you.

And the stakes are high. Democracy is on the defense. We’ve been exposing corruption and scandal for five decades, and this is a pivotal moment in our country’s history. Will democracy prevail? We won’t wait for time to tell—independent journalism is essential for democracy, and we’ll keep doing our part to amplify the free press.

So, we’re asking: Will you join the fight? Mother Jones has been here for 50 years, and we need your support to fuel the future of investigative journalism. Mark our 50th anniversary with a gift of any amount.

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

INDEPENDENT. BECAUSE OF YOU.

Mother Jones has no billionaires calling the shots—just readers like you making fearless reporting possible

Donate