My new Spot-on column is all about Stephen Colbert, a piece originally prompted by his new book I Am America (And So Can You!), but also by developments in his presidential campaign — well, his campaign for the Democratic primary in South Carolina (The Republicans wanted $35,000 to file).
Just in the hours since that column was posted, his campaign has been squashed.
Colbert, who poses as a conservative talk-show host on the Comedy Central cable network, filed to get on the ballot as a Democratic candidate in his native South Carolina. His campaign paid a $2,500 filing fee just before the noon deadline, said state Democratic Party Chairwoman Carol Fowler.
However, after about 40 minutes of discussion by top party officials, the executive council voted 13-3 to keep the host of “The Colbert Report” off the ballot.
“He’s really trying to use South Carolina Democrats as suckers so he can further a comedy routine,” said Waring Howe, a member of the executive council. And Colbert “serves to detract from the serious candidates on the ballot.”
But state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter told the committee Colbert could showcase the state “in a way that none of the other candidates on the ballot have been able to do.”
“I think you’re taking this a little too seriously,” she said.
Thus proving the point of my column that the establishment doesn’t know what to do with Colbert.
It’s amazing to me that Colbert has constantly pushed the envelope in terms of outrageousness and yet managed to seem fairly realistic as a conservative commentator. Often, it’s not even a leap, more like a small step, to go from one of his insane statements to an actual comment from the Right. It illustrates the first big challenge for Stephen Colbert or anyone else who wishes to address the activities of contemporary conservatives through satire: How do you ridicule the already over-the-top ridiculous?
Every week, commentators like Bill O’Reilly, Michelle Malkin or Ann Coulter will say something so whacked-out that it boggles the mind to imagine an effective retort. And yet Colbert seems to find a way to take their statements and philosophies and push them to an even more ridiculous, and yet logical, endpoint. In an earlier Spot-on column, I referenced Colbert’s interview of Dinesh D’Souza, in which Colbert agreed with the conservative author, but nudged his views a little further along, making D’Souza uncomfortable with standing so strongly behind them (watch it here). As Colbert writes in his book: "Shades of gray are for brain tissue and the weak. Neither one has a place in the News Business."
Stephen Colbert’s Truthy Reality
Tags: Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report, South Carolina primary