Free Republic

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is lamenting the end of “The Colbert Report,” saying it’s a “loss for ‘truthiness’ advocates across America.” The Comedy Central series ends its run Thursday night. Host Stephen Colbert is poised to take the reins at CBS’s “The Late Show,” when David Letterman retires next year. The House minority leader appeared in a sketch earlier this month with Colbert, who plays a faux cable news host on the show. Pelosi stretched her acting muscles as a wheelie-popping bike cop who preached safety to Colbert and Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.).

The depressed Democratic base needs to ask itself some questions: Do women want more representatives who oppose abortion? Do Hispanics want to see immigration reform postponed? Do young voters want college loans slashed? If they don’t, they’ll set aside whatever valid grievances they may have with Obama and mobilize. If Democrats lose control anyway, maybe nothing too bad will happen. Obama will veto GOP bills, and politics will be paralyzed for two years as the parties jostle for 2012. But a right-wing Republican takeover of Congress and state capitals isn’t something to accept with indifference. Midterms matter, and voters tempted...

Appearing on Monday’s The Colbert Report on Comedy Central to promote his book, "The Promise," MSNBC political analyst Jonathan Alter – also of Newsweek – asserted that President Barack Obama had "prevented another Great Depression," and declared that Obama had it more difficult than Franklin Delano Roosevelt because he had to "sweep up" like a "shovel brigade" after President Bush, as he used a word that had to be bleeped out for airing. Alter: "He proceeded to make history almost right away, not only because he was the first African-American elected President ... we were all living history. This man...

Politicians hope laugh a track to young voters US Representative Brad Sherman of California was pressed to name his favorite porn star. His colleague, Florida's John Mica, was asked how he managed to get through airport security with his rumored toupee. Representative Barney Frank of Newton, who is openly gay, became annoyed when asked for his wife's opinions, while Eliot Engel, a congressman from the Bronx, suffered the indignity of having his mustache combed on national television. Public humiliation on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" is becoming a rite of passage for the closely divided House of Representatives, whose members...