Is anyone else suspicious why Colbert would be booked for the WHCD?

[hang a left]

They had to know he was going to lambaste ** and the press. And he was the last one to appear??? His material was very unwelcome as it WOULD have been expected.

Also why would Wilson and Plame go???

Now Colbert's performance is THE talk of all the lefty blogs and sites. As you would expect it would be. Salon even has an article.

I haven't seen MSM repeating it and I actually saw a repeat of the "** Twins" skit on MSNBC today while perusing for protest coverage.

Also no violent incidents reported today with all the protests. Protesters, for the most part want the same thing as **...Amnesty.

Do you ever feel like they just constantly yank your chain?

[madame defarge]

1. Rumor or truthiness?

I thought Bill Kristol from Weekly Standard had something to do with it... Anyone know anything about that?

[liberal N proud]

2. I think there are two things that could have happened

1. They actually believed he was a conservative talk show host.

OR:

2. They didn't think anyone would have the balls to stand up to the regime. They thought they were the all powerful and no one could challenge them. The "librul" media has given them a false sense of power.

[corbett]

17. I Suspect Option 2

Either way, though, he showed real courage especially since the Secret Service very easily could have whisked him off to Guantánamo.

[babylonsister]

3. I'm not. He has a popular show on Comedy Central. They may

not have realized the extent of his sarcasm/irony, or how honest he would be.

[wavesofeuphoria]

4. If I recall .. they were having a hard time

finding any comedian who would go. Seinfeld I believe was asked .. a few others .. but declined. Jon Stewart declined also .. I believe he was there last year.

It seemed to me they were "desperate" to get someone .. and didn't really check our dear Colbert out well :) .. thankfully!

[NYCGirl]

10. Seinfeld, Letterman and Stewart turned it down. Last year, the featured

comic was Cedric the Entertainer, who, if I remember correctly, bombed bigtime.

The organization doing the "checking out" is the WHCA, not the WH. And I think they were aware of his show.

[MADem]

5. The WHC prefer someone who will poke and roast, not fawn

The trick is getting someone who won't go TOO far...like Imus did.

And Wilson and Plame are media figures now. They like having people in the news at those things; it spices up the evening. And by now both Wilson and Plame have many friends who are correspondents, so they're in good company. They're certainly classier than Paula Jones, at any rate....

Most people tend to forget, that since the Monkey shows up at this thing, that it is NOT HIS SHOW. It is an annual get together, put on and funded by the correspondents. The Monkey HAS to attend, because it has been Presidential tradition for many, many decades. He'd probably prefer to stay home.

[LittleClarkie]

7. It was traditional for the Prez to show up at the NAACP gathering too

but he managed to avoid that one pretty well for a few years.

[MADem]

12. That one gets less media coverage

Ironic, that. It's the more important gathering of the two. One deals with issues that affect, in one way or another, the entire population of the nation, and the other is a backslapping, networking dinner with jokes.

The WHC dinner, if the entertainment is even halfway funny, is an opportunity for the office holder to display grace, warmth, wit, self-depracation and to appear in a good light. The good press that can come from an artful performance can give one a bounce in the polls. If the incumbent gets pissy, though, and takes the barbs badly, it can have a negative impact.

I don't think Monkey got much of a bounce from that episode, though. His Bush Twins routine, though well received, was neutralized by the paid entertainment, and he didn't help by looking so ticked off at the commentaries--if he'd even done a bit of mugging, shrugging and eye rolling with a smile while Colbert was standing and delivering, he would come off as less meanspirited, and able to have a laugh at his expense.

[Yupster]

14. Correct MADem

Reading so many of these threads about the WHCD, I am of the opinion that many of the posters have never seen one before this year.

It is traditional that the entertainer is edgy and goes pretty far insulting the politicians and journalists in attendance. The newspeople also fight each other to see who can invite the most controversial guests to sit with them.

I think the point is that the journalists want to show that they aren't scared of anyone, especially the president and other politicians in attendance.

Do you think they knew Colbert would be controversial and biting? Of course. The same as when Al Franken was invited to do his schtick a few years ago.

[MSgt213]

6. For one thing he won't be invited back. They are not ready for Colbert

They are not ready for someone to expose them all for the frauds they are: the press, the generals and most certainly not the quick as wit president and FLOTUS.

[johnfunk]

8. After decades of Mark Russell and lame sketches...

... the Whorehouse Press Clique got their nose rubbed in their own "truthiness," with Colbert playing the par of eager enabler, holding up a metaphoric mirror to show these overpaid, incestuous, self-important arbiters of "news" just what they look like to people who have half a brain.

[Faygo Kid]

9. What do you mean, "suspicious?" Not sure I understand.

Of course he was the last to appear, that's the way it always works at that dinner (last year it was Cedric the Entertainer. Not memorable). Why wouldn't Wilson and Plame go? Can you expand on your question?

[hang a left]

11. I feel like I am being played.

Certainly they are aware of his material. Playing on the divisions of the right and left.

[Jade Fox]

13. I'm sure curious who's idea it was to have Colbert....

and if that person is still alive. ;)

[Crunchy Frog]

15. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

I don't know whether it is this time or not, but I try to not get suspicious over every single little thing. I'm just enjoying what happened at the dinner. If Stephen Colbert dies in a plane crash, then I'll get suspicious.

[KyuzoGator]

16. Someone thought he was a conservative Jon Stewart.

Probably had no idea that his character is a satire.