Rahm Emanuel to freshman House Democrats: "Steer Clear of Stephen Colbert"

[NYCGirl]

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/?last_story=/politics/war_room/2007/03/15/colbert/

Warning to Democrats: Steer clear of Colbert

Rahm Emanuel's advice to new House Democrats: Stay away from Stephen Colbert. As Tennessee Rep. Steve Cohen tells the Hill, the chairman of Democratic Caucus is telling his new charges that the publicity to be won by appearing on "The Colbert Report" isn't worth the risk that one will end up looking like a fool in the process. "He said don't do it ... it's a risk and it's probably safer not to do it," Cohen says.

Cohen ignored the advice -- a number of the new Democrats have done the same, apparently -- only to have Colbert ask him whether he's "the first Jew from Tennessee" and whether his claim that he has "the voting record of a black woman" means that he is, in fact, a black woman.

-- Tim Grieve

[TwilightGardener]

1. I loved that interview!!! I can see why they'd be wary, though...

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. shortsighted, stupid and it will backfire

but everything Rahm touches is tainted with DLC crap anyway.

Colbert will have a field day with Rahm, who deserves every bit of it.
watch for Colbert to do an interview to Rahm, but using a cut out of Rahm, interlaced with public speaches and interviews by Rahm. It will be hillarious and devastating.

That's right rahm, all we need to do is show even less of a spine than you and your DLCers have to date. Iraq is bad and getting worse, and you caused the House to cave.

[Atman]

3. What if they're not as stupid as Rahm is, and they "get it" what Colbert does?

It's still great PR for any guest, especially if they know how to play with Stephen. Rahm is an asshole.

.

[Clark2008]

8. And Cohen is brilliant. He knows how to play with Colbert.

[Greeby]

4. Up yours Rahm

Far as I'm concerned, if you say they shouldn't, then they should find time to go on there :P

[Spazito]

5. Hmmm, I wonder if he has also warned Democrats to ....

"steer clear of" Fox or is it just Colbert and his ilk that bothers Emanuel? I think Colbert should invite Emanuel to come on his show to explain his fear of satire.

[mmonk]

6. You beat me to it.

[gratuitous]

7. I don't know if I'd say "steer clear"

But I'd definitely give the new members of my caucus a heads up, maybe even offer a lunch tutorial on the schtick that Colbert works so they can be prepared. Because for sure a lot of people go on the show and come off looking like dummies, but mostly it's the self-important blowhards that get that.

If I were to tell new Democratic congressmen to steer clear of something, it would be anyone from Faux.

[mmonk]

9. Somebody needs to tell him Colbert's on our side.

Or maybe as far as Rahm is concerned......

[maryallen]

10. Earth to Dem Freshmen:Steer Clear of Rahm Emanuel!!

A man with two countries ...

[Moochy]

11. I hope Colbert covers this

C'mon Stephen someone is desperately crying out for satire!

[mmonk]

16. Yep. What a great opportunity and here's hoping he will take it.

Go Stephen!

[The_Casual_Observer]

12. Restoring dignity to the political process?

How about just doing what's right instead? Then you wouldn't have to hide from Colbert.

[Beaverhausen]

13. Rahm is not an "It-Getter"

Colbert is always supportive of the dems even though it looks, in the beginning of the interviews, that he is not. He has never made them look as bad as he does the republics. That is part of his brilliance.

[TlalocW]

14. For the most part the reps do a good job

Both democrat and republican because for the most part they can handle the back and forth with some humor. It's when they treat it too seriously or allow themselves to get nailed like Westmoreland on the 10 Commandments is when they come off as stupid. The mainstream media tried to make a big deal out of that one democratic representative from Florida who was running unopposed when Stephen suggested he say some things that would lose him the election if he had a challenger. So with Colbert's prompting he said cocaine and prostitutes were fun things to do, but it didn't gain any traction because they couldn't edit the clips enough to get rid of Colbert's prompting so anyone with a brain could see it was a joke.

Colbert even broke character on the show to smack the media down over that.

Besides, Colbert is a bit of a king-maker. When a New York republican rep refused to meet with him, he interviewed her challenger (that one singer from that one band... can't remember). He showed old album covers where one looked like the band was naked, and they sang a duet of the Star Spangled Banner, and he came off looking pretty good. He probably got a big bump out of that.

TlalocW

[ieoeja]

15. Maybe because of Rahm's predecessor.

Rahm's predecessor as Representative of the IL 5th is now Governor Rod Blagojevich. Blago appeared on The Daily Show a couple years ago.

He had never heard of The Daily Show before. Nor, apparently, had any of his advisors. He actually thought it was a real news program (what part of Comedy Central did they not get?), and ended up making a complete fool of himself.