« Big Oil Profits Trump National Security | Main | Media Dishonesty Rears Its Ugly Head »

April 30, 2006

Colbert "Unhinged".

Steven Colbert can be a little grating at times, but this week he's on one helluva roll.

First was his scathing take down of Bill Kristol. And now his balls-to-the-wall dissasembling of Dear Leader at the White House Correspondents Dinner:

Colbert, who spoke in the guise of his talk show character, who ostensibly supports the president strongly, urged the Bush to ignore his low approval ratings, saying they were based on reality, “and reality has a well-known liberal bias.”

He attacked those in the press who claim that the shake-up at the White House was merely re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. “This administration is soaring, not sinking,” he said. “If anything, they are re-arranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg.”

Colbert told Bush he could end the problem of protests by retired generals by refusing to let them retire. He compared Bush to Rocky Balboa in the “Rocky” movies, always getting punched in the face—“and Apollo Creed is everything else in the world.”

Turning to the war, he declared, "I believe that the government that governs best is a government that governs least, and by these standards we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq."

He noted former Ambassador Joseph Wilson in the crowd, just three tables away from Karl Rove, and that he had brought " Valerie Plame." Then, worried that he had named her, he corrected himself, as Bush aides might do, "Uh, I mean... he brought Joseph Wilson's wife." He might have "dodged the bullet," he said, as prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald wasn't there.

Colbert also made biting cracks about missing WMDs, “photo ops” on aircraft carriers and at hurricane disasters, melting glaciers and Vice President Cheney shooting people in the face. He advised the crowd, "if anybody needs anything at their tables, speak slowly and clearly on into your table numbers and somebody from the N.S.A. will be right over with a cocktail. "

Crooks and Liars has the video.

Paul over at Shakes Sis watched it live. Colbert looks to have shocked the crowd. The President couldn't duck out of the room fast enough.

The wingnutjabbers are crowing that Colbert "bombed" because he didn't get the uproarious laughter that Bush's own sketch garnered earlier in the evening. It demonstrates just how out of touch the right is. What they witnessed was brilliant, unvarnished satire in which edgy irony is used to make a statement.

We'll probably never see Bush's sketch again. But Colbert's will be played over and over for years to come. Last evening he conducted a master class on satire--while shoving the truth down the throat of the President and the DC press who are absent from it the other 364 days of the year.

Posted by Carla at April 30, 2006 07:43 AM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.preemptivekarma.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1256

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Colbert "Unhinged".:

» Plenty of Laughs at White House Correspondents' Dinner from The Sandbox
If you didn't catch the Bush Bush comedy routine at the Correspondents' Association, you missed a few good laughs. He brought out an impersonator, Steve Bridges, to give the crowd his real thoughts, as he played the polite politician. Here [Read More]

Tracked on April 30, 2006 02:34 PM