Our Clowns vs. Their Clowns

I confess I haven’t had time to watch the video of Steven Colbert in the House, so I will leave it to others to decide if he was funny or whether it was smart/appropriate for him to stay in persona for the gig. I just want to point out that the headline writers can’t make up their minds about which party Colbert embarrassed more.

Think Progress: “Fox Apoplectic Over Colbert Testimony: Megyn Kelly Demands Apology, Rep. Steve King Calls Him A Liar

OK, so he pissed off Republicans. But wait …

Byron York: Colbert embarrasses Dems; Conyers asks comedian to leave

Maybe some of you know this — in what context did Conyers ask Colbert to leave? Was he serious or was he kidding? Anyway, it’s not clear from York’s post exactly why the Dems were embarrassed by Colbert, just that they were, or that York thinks they should have been.

Jonathan Allen of Politico said that Colbert knocked Dems “off message”:

For a Democratic majority that has had difficulty demonstrating to voters that its policies are addressing their needs, Colbert provided another day off message and, perhaps, an emblem of a party that has lost its footing as it limps toward a preelection adjournment.

John Podhoretz actually said the Colbert testimony “may have been the single biggest pointless blunder in American political history, and I am not kidding.” Colbert hit a nerve, I take it.

Digby: “Of course in a world where Glenn Beck is considered a serious political figure, I suppose you can’t blame them for not getting the joke.”

On the whole, the reaction from leftie bloggers seems positive while the reaction from rightie bloggers is downright derisive. I take it wingnuts were pissed that the Colbert testimony took attention away from other testimony elsewhere on the Hill, regarding the New Black Panther Party / voter intimidation allegations.

Speaking of clown acts, here is a new Bill Maher video of Christine O’Donnell:

See also O’Donnell’s pledge to stop the whole country from having sex.

BTW, why is Christine O’Donnell not “the single biggest pointless blunder in American political history”? She’s a bigger joke than Colbert, any day.