White House Correspondents Insider

Behind the scenes of the most powerful city in the world — Washington, D.C. — and those who cover it.

The Rally To Restore Fear in DC Celebrity

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Republicans in Congress are more upset that a comedian cracked jokes at a hearing than the fact they invited a comedian to crack jokes at a hearing. Just making sure that’s clear before we get into the oddity that is celebrity endorsements.

The AP takes a crack at explaining the true nature of these press ops as those “famous-for-DC” meet with bold face names that grace the supermarket check-out lines.

Colbert’s celebrity is a commodity that California Democrat Zoe Lofgren, who chaired the subcommittee hearing, and the other witnesses that day sought to leverage. Lofgren joked at one point that the last time the hearing room was so crammed with audience members and cameras was for President Bill Clinton’s impeachment hearings a dozen years ago.

Of course, Colbert’s appearance was a joke. He appeared the night prior on The Colbert Report explaining why he was qualified to speak, based on his time as a migrant worker. But the explanation that Congress is now against Colbert is so simple it’s been used in Hollywood for years: ratings and relevance.

At the kicker of the AP article, Carol Swain, a law professor who testified before Colbert, remarked “I have testified before” and credited that because of the high profile star following her, “people heard my testimony.” This is directly what Colbert and Jon Stewart bring to the political world that is mired in otherwise mundane events that just so happen to dictate our government.

Celebrity is intoxicating, but when you have informed satire hiding behind celebrity it becomes a problem for most glad-handing politicos. Even with the upcoming Rally To Restore Sanity now getting a free bus service from New York to DC thanks to Arianna Huffington (complete with Twitter) and even President Obama plugging the rally, according to MSNBC First Read, due to the event’s focus on not foaming at the mouth due to punditry.

Even if Congress bristles at being made fun of, it still secretly swoons over the fact it can say the Dr. Stephen T. Colbert made fun of them for a five-minute viral clip they can show their staffers.

Endorsements Pull Through While Incumbents Suffer on Primary Day

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In the primary aftermath, the only campaigns that seem to matter belong to the Tea Party. After Christine O’Donnell, one of Sarah Palin’s picks, took the Delaware GOP primary yesterday and Carl Paladino taking the GOP nod for New York Governor from the New York Times.

Politico brings the word of doom that O’Donnell as the GOP candidate could snatch an all-but-confirmed victory away in November: “In the wake of Tuesday’s results, a state that would have almost certainly been a pick-up for the GOP is now likely to stay with the Democrats, making it more difficult for Republicans to win the 10 seats necessary to take back control of the Senate. ”

And yet, Mitt Romney endorses her.

First Read sums up yesterday’s results as such:

How do we make sense of Christine O’Donnell’s stunning Mike Castle in Delaware, Carl Paladino crushing Rick Lazio in New York’s GOP gubernatorial primary, and Kelly Ayotte and Ovide Lamontagne still running neck-and-neck in New Hampshire’s Senate GOP contest? It’s simple: We’re witnessing a purge within the Republican Party.

On the local front, Adrian Fenty conceded to Vince Gray for the D.C. Mayorship according to TBD–and here’s a possible of explanation as to why Fenty’s campaign hit a snag.
And of course, Charlie Rangel “easily defeats” any and all comers from The New York Times thanks to NY voter apathy.
We’re 48 days away from election day. Who knows what’ll happen next–aside from speculation and analysts waiting to see whether or not the Republican party implodes on itself.