Politico is wrong; Steven Colbert has no ceiling

Seriously. Steven Colbert never breaks character, but if he did, he could say that he is just joking. The establishment media and the three branches of the Federal Government have no excuse for their idiocy.

Oh yeah! He's already bested Herman Cain--Romney next?

It was hilarious to watch Colbert cleverly skewer everyone in the room at the White House Correspondent's Dinner in 2006. On his January 12th episode of the Colbert Report, Steven didn't have to attempt to crack jokes at Politico White House Correspondent Mike Allen; Allen was the joke.

It was bad enough for Allen o tout his superiority over every other media outlet simply because he had an I-phone, Allen outdid himself by explaining the ridiculously poor quality of the "news" that he and his organization delivered via the "Internets."

Put your phone down, Allen. Nobody finds you insightful.

Five percent off those polled said they would vote Steven Colbert when he hadn't announced a candidacy! Five percent isn't a ceiling, that's a floor. That should be obvious. I remember back in 2006 when the establishment media called Joe Lieberman untouchable because only 13 percent of Connecticut Democrats would vote for Ned Lamont--but that 13 percent was more than double the six percent of Connecticut Democrats who knew who Ned Lamont was! A mere moment of analysis was all that was required to foresee Lieberman's rejection come primary day.

And the ceiling? Unlimited. After, South Carolina is an open primary, meaning Democrats and Independents are allowed to vote for Republican candidates. With no Democratic Primary next week, the number of votes Steven may get is dependent on how many South Carolina Democrats feel like raining on Mitt Romney's parade.



Granted, the South Carolina Primary is only a week away. And no doubt the usual nattering nabobs of negativism will claim that Colbert is a comedian and should not be taken seriously. But many of these people are the subjects of Steven's humor every night. It is they who are the joke. And on January 21st, we shall see who is laughing.

Jon Stewart should have stayed up to watch the Colbert Report

Last night's extended Daily Show interview with Nancy Pelosi offered promise, but fell flat. A great deal of the failure fell on Pelosi, who maintained in a somewhat bizarre state slight sincerity and hard core question dodging. One question, though, revealed an unusual failure on Jon's part.

Nancy Pelosi's quasi-sincerity had Jon flummoxed.

"How is it," Jon Stewart asked Nancy Pelosi, "that Paul Volcker writes a three page memo, and that turns into 300 page legislation that Paul Volcker then doesn't support?"

Nancy Pelosi fortified herself against any sort helpful answer, and stuck to platitudes--although true--about the undue influence of lobbyists and Republican extremism.

If Jon Stewart really wanted to know how it is that good legislation so easily gets corrupted, he should have just stayed up and watched the Colbert Report. That very night, the subject of Colbert's "Word" segment was a an anti-bullying law in Michigan. The original legislation stated that public schools would adopt policies against bullying by students. Fair enough.

But before this bill became law, social conservatives carved out an exemption. "This section," states the law, "does not prohibit a statement of a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction."

Boom. This allows for harassment of any kind against any person. Steven made light of a few obvious flaws to this legislation, as Jews, Muslims and Christians are now free to harass each other, and the laws of Leviticus are quite ludicrous (Steven didn't mention it, but Leviticus prohibits eating pork, but does not prohibit a man marrying his daughter).

The absurdity of placing harassment in the eyes of the person making the statement is worthless. A Southern Baptist could tell a Catholic that he/she is hellbound because God does not appoint a living emissary in Jesus' absence. If said Catholic were to stay, "please stop saying such hateful things about me," said harasser could keep on shouting. After all, he is only stating his deeply held religious belief!

How did this happen? Through the legislative process. Through participation in representative democracy. Through parliamentary procedure. The failure of our democratic system is not limited to our nation's capitol, but merely an extension of our failures nationwide.

Jon kept prodding Nancy, and Nancy wouldn't let her guard down, finally pulling out a stock cheap applause line to exit the interview.

Of course, as we learned from some of the elections this Tuesday, our democracy isn't a complete failure. But that's a story for another day . . .