Stephen Colbert: Satirist or Desperate Attention-Whore?

Is Colbert’s trained-seal audience even enjoying these increasingly pathetic and boorish stunts?

You’d think there would be a cheaper and more dignified way to kiss Barack Obama’s ass. Like, say, actually doing so.

Associated Press:

Comedian Stephen Colbert is offering to pay half a million dollars to help subsidize South Carolina’s first-in-the-South GOP presidential primary, as state officials struggle to pay for it, but there’s doubt whether it would even be legal.

The Charleston native wrote in an op-ed Thursday in The State newspaper in Columbia that Colbert Super PAC — a type of political action committee that allows him to raise unlimited amounts of money from corporations, unions and individuals — will bridge the gap after state Republicans refused to contribute anything above $180,000 collected in candidates’ filing fees.

The state Election Commission, which administers South Carolina’s voting, has said it has $1 million on hand for the primary but is short of the total $1.5 million price tag. Spokesman Chris Whitmire says the Commission has notified budget officials the state may need to seek permission to run a deficit to fund the primary.

Colbert wrote that he offered make up that $500,000 funding gap after state Republicans ultimately turned down his proposal to pay them $400,000 if they’d name the contest after him. Party officials have confirmed meeting with Colbert earlier this year to discuss a deal that would have renamed the balloting “The Colbert Super PAC South Carolina Republican Primary” in exchange for a check from the comedian.

Colbert, who plays a mock conservative pundit on his Comedy Central TV show “The Colbert Report,” says he also wanted to put a question about “corporate personhood” on the January ballot. He seized on the issue after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling eased restrictions on campaign spending by corporations.

The only crowd Colbert is playing to is Obama’s MSM Palace Guards, who are obviously lapping it up like the lap dogs they are, but out here in the real world we’re all just scratching our heads.