An eagle-eyed reader notes a new item posted in connection with tomorrow’s meeting of the FEC: amendments to Draft A of the Colbert advisory opinion, proposed by five of the six commissioners (all besides Republican Commissioner McGahn).  This signals that things will go very smoothly (and I would guess rather quickly) at tomorrow’s FEC meeting.

The draft comes closer to the position of the Democratic Commissioners rather than the Republican Commissioners’ initial position, and it seems to lessen the possibility that the Colbert opinion could have (inadvertently) opened up a wide expansion of the “press exemption” to further undermine campaign finance laws.

Why would the Republican commissioners have agreed to this?  The likely reason, as my tipster suggests and I agree, is the negative publicity that would come to the Republican commissioners had the FEC deadlocked and not issued an AO resolving all of Colbert’s issues.

But don’t worry.  Once the Colbert circus leaves the FEC tomorrow, the agency will go back to its usual partisan deadlocks and Republican Commissioner obstructionism, and be as good as dead.