Colbert Issues Clarification of Karl Rove 'Money Laundering' Sketch

COMMENTARY | Karl Rove, former White House deputy chief of staff and senior political advisor to President George W. Bush, had his lawyer email comedian Stephen Colbert's lawyer, Trevor Potter, and forcefully denounce insinuations and innuendo that a Rove political action committee 501(c)(4), Crossroads GPS, was laundering money and donating it to Rove's SuperPAC, American Crossroads. On Thursday evening's show, Colbert issued a rare clarification of comments made on "The Colbert Report" and apologized to "Ham" Rove.

Stephen Colbert, in an effort to educate his viewers and America on the ridiculousness of campaign and political financing in the United States, formed a 501(c)(4) organization, an entity that can collect money from donors but does not have to disclose who the donors are, as a sister entity to his SuperPAC last week.

In so doing, and with the help of former FEC Commissioner and personal lawyer, Trevor Potter, Colbert found out just what his new PAC could do. When Colbert asked if his new 501(c)(4), called "SHH!," (an homage to traditional hush money schemes) could then given money to his SuperPAC, Potter told him it could -- and as a bonus, where SuperPACs must disclose the names of the donors, only the name of the 501(c)(4) had to be used.

"How is that not like money laundering?" Colbert asked his guest.

"Hard to say," Potter had laughed.

But Rove and company took exception to Colbert's copycat antics after the media pushed the idea that Colbert was calling Rove's collection processes "money laundering." The faux conservative pundit scolded the media for misrepresenting his words and comparing Rove's shadowy organizations with his imitation shadowy organizations.

Rove's lawyer's email noted that no monies had ever been transferred from Crossroads GPS to American Crossroads, nor would they ever be. So Colbert clarified that there was no laundering going on, that America had Rove's promise that if Rove's political organizations received dirty money, it would stay dirty.

In another ongoing gag on "The Colbert Report," he attempted to apologize to "Ham" Rove, an uncanned canned ham with glasses placed on his desk. Despite the uncanny resemblance to the actual Karl Rove, the ham made no response to the apology, so Colbert cut off a chunk from where the "brain" would be to get inside Rove's mind. As it turned out, "Ham" Rove was "cool with" Colbert's apology.

Truth be told, however, if Karl Rove -- or his lawyer -- was interested in keeping the idea of possible money laundering from gaining publicity, he would have never sent the email to Colbert. They would have let the segment pass without incident. Instead, they used it to their advantage.

Rove's SuperPAC and his anonymous donor 501(c)(4) would gain from publicity of the quasi-joke "attack" (insinuations and innuendo) made by Colbert, and they knew it. Therefore, to keep the publicity channel open, a letter describing the non-relationship between Rove SuperPAC American Crossroads and 501(c)(4) was issued. Conservative groups and individuals seeing the Colbert segment as a direct "attack" on Rove and his political action committees would be more than willing to donate.

Ultimately, Stephen Colbert got a few more laughs and Karl Rove and his political action organizations (most likely) got a few more donations. And Americans got a good view of just how groups and individuals circumvented the transparent SuperPACs, which was clearly Colbert's intent.