Biggest election season winner? Stephen Colbert
Every incumbent candidate the faux-newsman interviewed in his notorious "Better Know a District" segment was reelected.
By Michael Ordoña, Times Staff Writer
November 9, 2006
In the wake of the Democratic congressional juggernaut, the biggest winner this election season has risen from the parted waters - and it's not Nancy Pelosi. It's Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report."
As the comedian was only too happy to point out during the channel's election coverage, every incumbent candidate he interviewed in his notorious "Better Know a District" segment was reelected. This was the same segment that had scared off several invited congress people for fear of being made to look foolish in the campaigns' final weeks. How foolish do they look now?
Consider Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.), best known for promoting the display of the Ten Commandments in the House of Representatives: He appeared on the show and though he failed to list the complete complement of commandments at Colbert's request, he still pulled in about 67% of the vote in his reelection bid.
Shrugging aside oft-repeated notions that the midterm elections were a referendum on the war in Iraq, Colbert said on "The Daily Show and the Colbert Report Present the Midterm Midtacular," his up-to-the-minute election coverage with Jon Stewart, that "these elections are a referendum on something more important - me." Who can argue?
The fact that the rate of incumbent reelection in the House is traditionally above 90%, and that several of his interviewees ran unopposed, did not put a limp in Colbert's victory lap. The candidates were on his show, they won their races, "They owe their victories to me," he declared.
One challenger whom Colbert interviewed when an incumbent declined the show's invitation also proved victorious. After appearing on the show, former Orleans lead singer John Hall let Sue Kelly (R-N.Y.) know she was not "Still the One" on election night.
"We got a huge publicity boost out of it," Hall said. "There were so many replays on YouTube. I got more young people coming to my events. It definitely magnified the efforts on my campaign."
Not all winners were as gracious about Colbert's obvious influence on their campaigns. "I received 83% of the vote, but if I hadn't gone on Colbert I might have received the other 17%," said Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio).
"Stephen Colbert's enormous influence on the midterm elections was exceeded only by that of Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay, Dennis Hastert, Donald Rumsfeld, Mark Foley, Dick Cheney, George Bush, that guy with the cigar down in Texas [Kinky Friedman], George Allen, John Boehner and Katherine Harris' horse," said Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.).
"More seriously, Colbert has done a great job of pulling back the curtain on the ridiculous and over-spun Republican media machine," she said. His power doesn't stop at the ballot box. The electoral sweep is merely the latest win in a long (though somewhat tarnished) streak for the pseudo-pundit. The San Francisco Zoo named a bald eagle after him (young Stephen Jr. then distressed his proud "papa" by apparently flying off to Canada). The Saginaw Spirit, a Michigan hockey team, named its mascot "Steagle Colbeagle the Eagle" in October and promptly reeled off a hot streak that lifted the team to the top of its division (that would be the Ontario Hockey League).
In September, Colbert fans rigged the online voting to name a bridge, or híd, in Hungary after their hero, tallying an amazing 17 million votes in the first round. (Although Hungarian Ambassador András Simonyi subsequently appeared on the show to declare Colbert the winner and award him a passport and about $50, Simonyi explained that, in order to actually have a híd named after him, he would have to both speak Hungarian fluently and be dead.)
Clearly, it's a Stephen Colbert world - or nation, at least. As he told Stewart during their election coverage, "I am America Deep inside, I'm a melting pot of all the things that make America great."
