Roast

The White House Correspondence Dinner was a little while ago. This year Stephen Colbert, the host of The Colbert Report on Comedy Central, was the guest speaker. The character Stephen plays is one similar to Bill O'Reilly except thats its a very satirical take on him. Colbert's character is a staunch Republican who believes every word the President says and thinks that any criticism or deviation from what the President says is pretty much equivalent to heresy.

So it confused me when the committee chose Colbert as their guest. Why would they pick someone who's TV show blatantly skewers the administration? Did they not get it? Did they not understand that he would harshly lampoon them and the "liberal media" during the entire speech? I guess not. I suppose they thought he would go easy on them. Well, they were wrong and I was right. Well, except that I expected Colbert to mention how he hates bears and their "liberal bear agenda," a favorite topic on his show.

Colbert shredded the administration. He mocked the press and even took a shot at the First Lady and her reading initiative. His speech was the talked about for days after the event. Republican and Democrat talking heads couldn't understand why Colbert went where he did. They were disgusted that he didn't make it softer and more respectful, especially since the President was sitting about three feet away.

But how can you blame Colbert? He's famous for doing exactly what he did that night. The committee knew who he was and booked him anyway. Shouldn't the outrage be not on Colbert but instead on the committee that selected him. Of course not, there's no public figure that represents the selection committee. It's just easier to go after Colbert and it's ridiculous.

But, such is life in the public punditry that are the 24 hour news channels. Because they have a lack of material to report, they comment relentlessly to their base on three topics a day, repeating them over and over again.

Personally, I loved his speech even though it was awkward for the location and audience. I found it hilarious. You can check it out here. The other highlight of the night was when Bush was accompanied by a Bush impersonator for a speech. You can check that out here.

There were two lines that I really enjoyed. The first was when Colbert urged Bush to ignore his low approval ratings, saying they were based on reality, "and reality has a well-known liberal bias." The other was when he said that the recent shakeup in the administration was not simply rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic because "this administration is not sinking , its soaring." He went on say that it was rather rearranging deck chairs on the Hindenberg.

Tags: Politics, Stephen Colbert, & Satire