How You Know Colbert Hit It Out Of The Park

Stephen Colbert's performance was truly brilliant.

As political satire performance art it was brave, bold, and fearless as he bearded the lions again and again.  As a plea for real help for America's migrant workers, it was also touching, heartfelt and real.

I know this because afterward it became a race to see who could show more indignation at his testimony before Congress on migrant workers, the Village pearl-clutchers or the slowly-boiling Republicans.  FOX's Megyn Kelly blew a vacuum tube.  Steve King of Iowa sneered and mocked Colbert.

Megyn Kelly was furious over Colbert’s testimony. “Congressman, do you think Zoe Lofgren owes this country an apology for wasting our taxpayer dollars and your time?” she asked. But King wouldn’t bite. “To make a blanket request like that, I don’t know,” he said. King then proceeded to call Colbert a liar:

(More below the jump...)



Politico's Jon Allen ripped into Colbert.

Ditching his “prepared” testimony, Colbert delivered a punch-lined discourse on his chief qualification as an expert on the issue: A 10-hour stint working the fields. Staying in the character of a faux TV newsman, he also threw in a few one-liners more suitable for a late-night show on Comedy Central or Cinemax than morning C-SPAN.

"No doubt we just locked up the Comedy Channel vote," Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis chided. "My opinion, we should forget social satirists. Given Congress' low approval, maybe we should invite the 'Glee' cast to perform next."

Colbert's antics certainly brought national attention to the hearing room, though it’s unclear whether anyone will remember the real point of the hearing — migrant workers in America — as much as they’ll remember the day the Colbert Circus came to Congress.

The Washington Examiner's Byron York blamed the Democrats (as always).

The appearance of comedian Stephen Colbert before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law has turned into an embarrassment for the Democrats responsible for the hearing.

Bloggers on the right could barely contain their venom for the man and blamed him for intentionally smothering their Obama Derangement Syndrome event of the day, where the New Black Panther Party apparently was working directly for Obama's race brownshirts or something where white voters needed protection from Scary Black People, or some other such hogwash.

But hey, wouldn't be complete without the grouchy Left tearing into Colbert too. Liss McEwan:

I know I'm the Most Humorless Feminist in all of Nofunnington, but, even as HILARIOUS as the idea of recording fat jokes into the Congressional record for all posterity is, I don't really want my elected representatives turning Congressional hearings into govertainment.

Democrats, you might have noticed that the infotainmenting of the news didn't exactly work in your favor. It's hard to see how turning C-SPAN into an adjunct of Comedy Central is a wise strategy.

Yeah, see, I guess I was the only one then who saw Colbert for what he was doing:  leveling remarks so deadly accurate and deadpan dangerous that he was then able to make a real, honest statement about the awful plight of America's underclass migrant workers.

Mr. Colbert paused, scratched the back of his head and sounding almost surprised at himself replied, “I like talking about people who don’t have any power, and it seems like one of the least powerful people in the United States are migrant workers who come and do our work but don’t have any rights themselves,” he said. “Migrant workers suffer and have no rights.”

It took a comedian to say this.  The days of Cesar Chavez are in the history books, but the legacy he left still requires a hell of a lot of work, and much of it has been undone by the Republicans.  It took a man pretending to be a political pundit to actually lead Congress to realize the very real problem that millions of us face.

I understand the beltway types don't like being mocked in their own home.  The Republicans were shocked, the Democrats were nervous, and the Villagers were about to set the man on fire.  But out here in the rest of the country, Colbert's words struck a nerve.

A while hell of a lot of us are a just a couple of missed paychecks away from wishing we were migrant farming.  The Village and Congress?  Not so much.