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Stephen Colbert: Great Boss, Potentially A Republican?

Huffington Post   |   May 2, 2008 06:45 PM


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Update/Correction: Sam Reich has since removed the below item from his blog, and the contents of the below post can no longer be verified and may be inaccurate. The Huffington Post regrets the confusion.

CollegeHumor's Sam Reich blogged about his visit to the set of "The Colbert Report," where his friend Barry is a writer. Reich reported that Colbert may be a conservative, according to the writers on the show, and that he voted for a Republican president at least once in his life. Reich also reported the interesting, but not surprising, tidbit that Colbert is a "great boss" who thanks his writers personally when they deliver a good monologue:

I asked Barry if any conservatives worked at the show, and he said he doubted it, although the jury was out on Colbert. He's a devout Catholic, goes to church every Sunday and teaches Sunday school. He's also voted for at least one Republican president. Still, there's no doubt where his politics lay at present. On the left part of the set, the part that we at home don't see, there's a banner that says "McCain '08: The Luck Stops Here." Before the show starts, Colbert does laps around his desk and then addresses his audience: "Does anyone have any questions that can help redeem me in real life for who I play on television?"


He's a great boss, too. When monologues go particularly well, he calls writers to thank them personally. Once, when calling New Zealand "Diet Australia" got a lot of laughs, he gave the author a bottle of wine. Barry was responsible for "The Word" when John Edwards took it over this past Thursday, and the reaction was so good that Colbert said, "What White House correspondents dinner?"

Read Sam's entire account from his time at the "Colbert Report" here.

 
 
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09:07 AM on 05/05/2008
He's a Catholic from Charleston. You might remember that Charleston sat out the Revolutionary War as a British enclave, sat out the Civil War as a federally blockaded neutral zone, and sat out the entire Prohibition Era as an only slightly subdued cocktail party. They don't have 'conservatives' in Charleston, they just have Charlestonians. They all drink, even the Methodists, and their idea of 'conservative' has to do with doing church in Latin, keeping the l918 Prayer Book and generally not playing golf farther north than Conway. Their liberals are people like Fritz Hollings, who stay sober enough to know where the federal action is. Colbert is just more evolved than the rest of us. He's from the Holy City. What can we say?
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LoloZ
08:38 AM on 05/05/2008
Stephen Colbert is nothing short of brilliant. We can all second guess him all we want, i think he's too clever to be "figured out." He defies political party.
02:46 AM on 05/05/2008
So if Stephen Colbert is a devout Catholic, that makes him a Republican? This is news for John Kerry, not to mention the entire Kennedy family. Clearly you're getting your talking points from FOX News.
06:34 AM on 05/05/2008
I think Colbert is Colbert. I think he's nopartisan. That's what makes him awesome.
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02:13 AM on 05/05/2008
the white house press correspondents dinner from a couple of years ago was the best piece of political satire and lampooning EVER. if anyone here hasn't seen it, just google stephen colbert's name with the correspondents dinner, and watch the whole thing. shocking. brave. brilliant. he's comedic genius, pure and simple.

he's a devout sunday school teacher yes. but he's way too decent and smart to be a republican.
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nevadagirl
Socialist in high heels.
12:19 AM on 05/05/2008
I kon't care about his party affiliation (although I read in his biography that he is a Democrat and he did try to run in NC as a Democrat), but as much as he makes fun of the pope and Jesus, I was hoping that he had left the church. Why are Catholics not leaving in droves over the priest sex abuse scandal and its massive coverup over so many years? If you contribute money to the church, you are part of the problem!
01:15 AM on 05/05/2008
yea and your tax dollars get spent on an unjust war, yet you don't leave the country. show some tolerance, you may not respect the Catholic church, but you can't say that all Catholics are culpable for the sex abuse scandal, and it was South Carolina, not NC that Colbert almost got on the ballot in
09:09 AM on 05/05/2008
Besides, Catholics don't give to the church worth a toot, and for them the Catholic Church remains as Mort Sahl said 'the only THE Church'.
10:34 AM on 05/05/2008
He tried to run for President in South Carolina on both the Republican and Democratic tickets.

He didn't run as a Rep. because they wanted a $20,000 filing fee.

Although he got enough signatures to petition on to the Dem ballot the Party wouldn't let him on. Rightly so.

Doritos sponsored his candidacy. I wonder how FEC would have dealt with tht had he gotten on the ballot?
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ecotopian
I am nerd, hear me geek
12:01 AM on 05/05/2008
I heard him in an interview on "Fresh Air" (go here to listen http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15116383) . He is not a republican. His character is. They, however, are not the same person.
11:44 PM on 05/04/2008
When Steven Colbert did an interview on 60 minutes last year where he said he was a Liberal Democrat. And if he was a a true conservative, he'd never have humiliated Bush at that dinner years back. Besides, voting for a Republican President doesn't automatically make you a Conservative.
10:42 PM on 05/04/2008
he's not a freakin republican, being religious doesn't make you republican, voting once for a republican candidate doesn't make you republican, geez!
10:35 PM on 05/04/2008
.
The Stephen Colbert character is simply a ROCKERY of a neocon talking head, BOR???
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Sardonica
Gimme the chocolate & no one gets hurt.
10:16 PM on 05/04/2008
I'm not sure if Colbert is a Republican - but I know who is DEFINITELY one: HILLARY CLINTON!

The warning signs have been everywhere - Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Bill Kristol, Richard Mellon Scaife, Pat Buchanan, Joe Scarborough all endorsing her in one form or another; Hillary supporters finding comfort and warmth from FOX NEWS -- many even going so far as to proclaim Fox really IS fair and balanced. Crazy, right?

Well - - it's official - The Weekly Standard calls Hillary Clinton One of it's own:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/063kvafy.asp?pg=1

They predict that if she gets the nomination, she will run to the right of John McCain. LOLOL Have fun dealing with THAT, Hillary supporters!
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sharonh
10:46 PM on 05/04/2008
Are you selling the Weakly Standard?
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blessedfrog
save habeas corpus
11:53 PM on 05/04/2008
Oh Please - Yes Nationalized Healthcare is such a Republican thing. She went on fox to reach an audience she might not otherwise - plain and simple. If Obama had done it -you'd be swooning at what a 'reach across party lines' guy he is. That is a joke.
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Sardonica
Gimme the chocolate & no one gets hurt.
01:06 AM on 05/05/2008
I don't think you read the article. It has nothing to do with her going on Fox (Obama went on Fox to make his case for their viewers, too - you didn't know that?). It's about the accusations that Hillary is Hillary waging her campaign against Obama as if she were a Republican. Accusations that are well-founded. SHe is selling out the base of her very own party to win this nomination.

In this article, she is called "Nixonian", compared (favorably) to Lieberman. and is described as a "feminist form of George W. Bush".

And that sits fine with you? Those three names give you the warm fuzzies?
10:38 AM on 05/05/2008
Actually National Health Insurance COULD be a conservative issue.

After all, the individual who first instituted National Health Insurance was that well known liberal Otto Von Bismark. Around 1880 something.

Which only goes to show: German conservatives are only about a century ahead of American liberals.
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sharonh
09:59 PM on 05/04/2008
Doesn't matter which side of the political fence he is on; the man is an insane wondernaut with balls the size of Texas. Lots of love to Mr. Colbert
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zull2
http://www.zullnero.com/blah/
09:40 PM on 05/04/2008
Nothing about that tells me he's a Republican. JFK was a Catholic. A whole lot of Democrats that are still registered Democrat voted for Reagan or Bush Sr. at one time. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes.
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Ladyrantsalot
The bell tolls for thee.
09:29 PM on 05/04/2008
Oh, please. Stephen Colbert is a familiar social type. He grew up in a loving, conservative, Roman Catholic family, the kind of family that, if it ever voted Dem, stopped voting Dem after the 1970s. Many of the girls and some of the boys kept the faith--literally, by continuing to be practicing Catholics, and/or figuratively, by accepting that the Democratic party better reflects the the social justice message of the Church. The abortion issue is the only significant area of agreement between the Church and the Republican party. All of the conflicts, contradictions, and challenges of Boomer Catholicism make for interesting personality types. Some are quite angry. Most develop a unique sarcastic style. A small minority, like Stephen (and MoDo on a good day), have learned to challenge the bizzareness of it all into a great comedy routine. They're liberal, but they defy the conventional pigeon holes.
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07:23 AM on 05/05/2008
Not all practicing Catholics are conservatives. A wing of the Catholic Church has a long tradition of active protest against conservative, militaristic policiies. Remember the Berrigan Brothers? The lead on this article is deceptive...happens a lot on Huffpo.
09:13 PM on 05/04/2008
Is Colbert a (R)?

To answer that, I think one would have to ask a (R) ... Why not that person that booked him of the W.H. Correspondence Dinner?

Snerd
09:12 PM on 05/04/2008
Yes he is thats why I think he so funny he has everyone fooled on this site.
10:39 AM on 05/05/2008
Don't watch his show, do you.