Balls of Steel

My hat is off to Steven Colbert. I've always thought he was pretty funny, but right now I'm watching him at the White House Correspondent's Dinner, where he is giving a speech in front of pretty much every important person in the US, including Bush himself, sitting just two feet away. I caught it in the middle, and Colbert was subtly riffing on everything Bush has ever done. First he's looking at Bush saying "I love this man, I love this man so much, I'm so happy to be here. Somebody pinch me. No, I'm a pretty sound sleeper, somebody shoot me in the face." Then "Oh, is he here?" (re: Cheney)

He starts talking about how Bush and he each make decisions from the gut, because the gut doesn't get its answers from facts. He brought up religion, how he's a Christian like Bush, and he also believes that everyone - Buddhists, Hindus, Jews - all should have the opportunity to find Jesus Christ as their lord and savior. He started talking about Bush's approval rating - 32 %. He shouldn't listen to the people who tell him the glass is half empty, because actually, the glass is 2/3 empty. And he shouldn't drink the last 1/3, because that's usually backwash. Then he says Bush is like Rocky fighting Apollo Creed, because Bush always comes back. Then he went into this long analogy about how Bush comes back, then he says...Oh wait, Rocky lost that one. Well....then Bush is like a guy who keeps getting punched in the face.

He says he also believes that government is best which governs least. And by that standard, we've set up fabulous gov't in Iraq. He said he likes how Bush stands for things, and how he stands on things. Particularly an aircraft carrier, or a flooded city. This shows Americans that we have the greatest staged photo ops in all of history.

Then he went on to point out other notables in the crowd. He pointed out Scalia, then said hello by flicking him off under his chin, a la what Scalia did to someone a few months back. Then he pointed out John McCain, saying he's glad to have him back in the Republican fold, and next time he's in South Carolina giving a speech at Bob Jones University, he should look him up, and that it's great that he's seen the light.

Colbert also pointed out that "reality has a strong liberal bias."

Half the time only a few brave souls were laughing, and most of the people were cringing. Bush was smiling during parts, but I don't think he was too amused.

Steven Colbert, a true American hero.