Just days after Stephen Colbert formally turned over control of his Super PAC to Jon Stewart (so Colbert could "explore" a run for president in South Carolina despite the fact that he cannot legally get on the ballot there), the PAC is up with its first negative ad, a hit on Mitt Romney and his infamous "corporations are people" remark.

If they're people, says the Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow PAC (in the voice of John Lithgow, no less), well then Mitt Romney, former corporate raider, is "a serial killer."

Enjoy: "Attack in B Minor for Strings."

(If it seems like Romney's getting the worst of all this, consider the collateral muck that is splashing on his rivals. Like when Colbert warned the other day that Romney's rivals are piling onto the front-runner "like Newt Gingrich on a younger, healthier wife."

Seems like further evidence for John Hudson's argument: Stephen Colbert is trying to teach the country about its civic institutions by demonstrating how they can be manipulated for any old purpose. The comedian in this lesson is not the silly part.

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Ted Mann