Rep. Bob Wexler, among the blowhardiest of blowhard congress-critters, was out-and-out abused by Steven Colbert last week.

Wexler thought he knew what he was getting into — but really he didn’t.

He found himself talking about whether caribou meat should be used to fuel sport utility vehicles. And he found himself being cajoled into staring at the camera and saying, “I enjoy cocaine because it’s a fun thing to do,” in a segment that aired Thursday night.

[...]

Then, because Wexler has no opponent this year, Colbert — saying “this is just kidding” — egged him on to “say a few things that would really lose the election for you if you were contested.” Colbert neatly hemmed him in by telling him to complete this sentence: “I enjoy cocaine because… ”

And for Comedy Central, here’s the money shot: Wexler squirming but looking straight ahead and playing along by saying, “I enjoy cocaine because it’s a fun thing to do.” Followed by, again at Colbert’s suggestion: “I enjoy the company of prostitutes for the following reasons: because it’s a fun thing to do. If you combine the two together, it’s probably even more fun.”

It’s not terribly surprising that a member Congress would be so removed from pop culture so as not to know that an interview with Colbert might not end up portraying him in the most flattering light. But shouldn’t Wexler’s younger, hipper staffers have given him a heads-up? After all, the segment Colbert interviewed Wexler for has been ongoing for months, and has been bipartisan in its vicious (and hillarious) ridicule:

Which really is the point of Colbert’s recurring segment on congressional districts — making a member of Congress uncomfortable. When Orlando Republican John Mica appeared, Colbert asked whether he had trouble getting his rumored toupee through airport security. Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank, who is gay, reportedly was seething after Colbert asked him what it was like to be “an openly left-handed” American.

All of which makes this passage awfully curious:

“I had never seen the show,” he said. “Many of the people in the office love the show, and they said it would be fantastic.”

Now ask yourself, if you were the loyal staffer of a congressman, and you had seen installments of Colbert’s running feature on congressional districts, would you recommend that your boss subject himself to Colbert’s editors? Would you assure him that the outcome would be fantastic? I sure as hell wouldn’t.

Sorta’ makes you wonder if a few people on Wexler’s staff didn’t mind seeing their boss get knocked down a couple of notches, doesn’t it?

In any case, I’m not kidding with the header to this post. Given the Oregon attorney general’s absurd reaction to Comedy Central’s new local news mash-up Dog Bites Man (a show that’s absolute genius, by the way), and the guerilla comedy tactics of Ali G, Colbert, and The Daily Show correspondents, it’s only a matter of time before some embarassed politician call for the FCC to regulate “disingenuous interviewing” or some such nonsense. Never underestimate the grandstanding potential of a politician with a bruised ego.

In fact, I’ll go ahead and predict that this will happen. Within the next year. Let’s wait and see.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 24th, 2006 at 8:37 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.