Brian Rucker
10-11-2006, 07:01 AM
http://nymag.com/news/politics/22322/index.html
But the real reason he’s having a very good year is that we’re about to head to the polls in what the Times has characterized as “the most toxic midterm campaign environment in memory,” amid a barrage of attack ads that play out like Colbert-penned parodies. One Republican spot criticizes a Wisconsin Democrat and doctor for suing patients who hadn’t paid their medical bills and includes the line “Why don’t you just tell the truth, Dr. Millionaire?,” which is impossible to hear without imagining it in Colbert’s scolding, mock-stentorian voice. The president recently reached a compromise on torture legislation by redefining the meaning of torture. When a National Intelligence Estimate concluded that the war in Iraq had increased the terrorist threat to America, the White House’s official response was that the war in Iraq had not, in fact, increased the terrorist threat to America. Colbert’s cleverly worded political doublespeak—like the press-corps-dinner joke “Don’t pay attention to the approval ratings that say 68 percent of Americans disapprove of the job [Bush] is doing. I ask you this: Does that not also logically mean that 68 percent of Americans approve of the job he’s not doing?”—could plausibly have come from the mouth of Tony Snow. Or Donald Rumsfeld. Or Karl Rove.
“Language has always been important in politics, but language is incredibly important to the present political struggle,” Colbert says. “Because if you can establish an atmosphere in which information doesn’t mean anything, then there is no objective reality. The first show we did, a year ago, was our thesis statement: What you wish to be true is all that matters, regardless of the facts. Of course, at the time, we thought we were being farcical.”
But the real reason he’s having a very good year is that we’re about to head to the polls in what the Times has characterized as “the most toxic midterm campaign environment in memory,” amid a barrage of attack ads that play out like Colbert-penned parodies. One Republican spot criticizes a Wisconsin Democrat and doctor for suing patients who hadn’t paid their medical bills and includes the line “Why don’t you just tell the truth, Dr. Millionaire?,” which is impossible to hear without imagining it in Colbert’s scolding, mock-stentorian voice. The president recently reached a compromise on torture legislation by redefining the meaning of torture. When a National Intelligence Estimate concluded that the war in Iraq had increased the terrorist threat to America, the White House’s official response was that the war in Iraq had not, in fact, increased the terrorist threat to America. Colbert’s cleverly worded political doublespeak—like the press-corps-dinner joke “Don’t pay attention to the approval ratings that say 68 percent of Americans disapprove of the job [Bush] is doing. I ask you this: Does that not also logically mean that 68 percent of Americans approve of the job he’s not doing?”—could plausibly have come from the mouth of Tony Snow. Or Donald Rumsfeld. Or Karl Rove.
“Language has always been important in politics, but language is incredibly important to the present political struggle,” Colbert says. “Because if you can establish an atmosphere in which information doesn’t mean anything, then there is no objective reality. The first show we did, a year ago, was our thesis statement: What you wish to be true is all that matters, regardless of the facts. Of course, at the time, we thought we were being farcical.”