May 4, 2007
Colbert, Davis, Norton: Sittin' in a Tree
Last night Fairfax's Rep. Tom Davis (R) sat down with Stephen Colbert to better know Virginia's "Fighting" 11th District. While it was great to see another local politician step up to the plate, Davis seemed a little befuddled by Colbert's style. For example he likes the Doobie Brothers, but has no idea what a "doobie" is, and probably won't be participating in any program to tag and track Republicans. Whew!
Maybe Davis's performance just seemed flat due to Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton's (as Colbert calls her, "enemy of liberty, but friend of my show") one-woman campaign to raise the bar for Report appearances. In fact, Norton is now taking over other people's 'Better Know a District' segments.
When Colbert brought up Davis's sponsorship of D.C. voting rights legislation and asked the Congressman whether Norton and he were an "item", Davis honestly looked like he didn't know what "an item" meant. (Has he never been to the supermarket check-out line and glanced at, say, People, Star, In Touch, Us, Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide or even Newsweek?) The footage immediately cuts to Norton herself, saying with her usual gusto, "Tom told you nothing of the sort." Thank you again, Ms. Norton. You represent the District like no other, and make all us feel like friends of the show.
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Agreed on all counts. Although clueless politicians and policy wonks are fun to watch, it's the folks who are smart enough to be in on the joke who give me a sigh of relief!
If you haven't seen it check The Fightin' 8th! Moran punches Colbert out!
Hmmm... Just an opinion -- but I think you guys are way off -- I thought Davis performed better than anybody else I've seen in that segment. He knew exactly what Colbert meant by both "doobie" and "item", but he dryly played it off. He also clearly got Colbert on both the Iraq war -- Colbert says, "Clearly your comfortable with this subject so we'll move on" -- and the "multitasking" tidbit. Colbert, also, was great as always.
A shame MSNBC did not let Colbert host those so-called presidential debates. That would have cleared out the dead wood fast.
Well, he did try, and the multitasking thing was evidence of that, yes. But he was almost like a stiff Democrat ala Gore or Kerry as he talked about his multitasking prowress. I think his best moment was adding up Colbert's numbers: 24.
He came off as good as the producers would let him. I give him credit just for showing up.
Let me clarify: He came off as well as Cobert could allow him to and still stay true to the segment's purpose as satire of a right wing media hack's interview of a Dem. Everyone knows or should know it's a joke. And Davis should get credit for not being too self-serious and brittle to play along.