Laugh, and the Voters Laugh With You, or at Least at You

New York Times on AOL News ^ | February 27, 2006 | Sheryl Gay Stolberg

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Feb. 26) - Representative James P. Moran, Democrat of Virginia, does not have the kind of record most lawmakers would herald on national television. He has offended Jews with impolitic remarks and made news for scuffling with his wife a day before she filed for divorce. A former boxer, he threatened to slug one House colleague, and has thrown a punch at another.

So what in the world possessed him to appear on "The Colbert Report," the late-night Comedy Central show, and allow himself to be goaded into taking a swing at the host, Stephen Colbert? "Because," Mr. Moran explained, "a little self-deprecation on the part of a politician is priceless."

Self-deprecation is often in short supply in Washington. But Mr. Colbert, playing the deadpan reporter in his "Better Know a District" segments, is injecting a new levity into politics. Tongue firmly in cheek, he is on a quest to interview — or lampoon — all 434 members of the House. (The man who held the 435th seat, the disgraced California Republican Randy Cunningham, "is dead to me," Mr. Colbert declared.)

[3AngelaD]

We in Northern Virginia usuallly refer to our elected representative as Congressman Moron. He is.