Well, let’s invite a comedian to do his testimony in front of a live Congressional Committee (estimated to cost $125,000 taxpayers) to mock the whole idea of immigrant labor on farms.
This ain’t no Elmo moment, this was a serious mockery of Congress and immigration.
With joblessness near double digits, federal spending hurtling us toward national bankruptcy and an Islamic terror regime seeking nukes, what is Congress doing? Taking testimony from comedians.
What was Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., thinking when she invited Comedy Central’s faux right-wing pundit Stephen Colbert to appear — “in character”! — before her House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration?
But what does she care? She’s a 15-year incumbent whose San Jose district is so far to the left that she routinely gets re-elected with over 70% of the vote.
WASHINGTON – Taking his blowhard comedy act to Congress, Stephen Colbert told lawmakers that a day picking beans alongside illegal immigrants convinced him that farm work is “really, really hard.”
“It turns out — and I did not know this — most soil is at ground level,” Colbert testified Friday. Also, “It was hotter than I like to be.”
Still, Colbert expressed befuddlement that more Americans aren’t clamoring to “begin an exciting career” in the fields and instead are leaving the low-paid work to illegal immigrants.
Staying in character as a Comedy Central news commentator, Colbert offered a House hearing his “vast” knowledge, drawn from spending a single day on a New York farm as a guest of the United Farm Workers.
The union launched its “Take Our Jobs” campaign to back up its claim that few Americans would do the work of farm laborers, the vast majority of whom are in the U.S. illegally. Only seven people accepted the jobs, the union said.
Colbert pleaded with lawmakers to do something about the farm labor issue because “I am not going back out there.”
A House bill that creates a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants has been filed and another is being drafted in the Senate but Congress is due to recess soon to focus on fall elections. The bills, or pieces of them, could come up in a lame-duck session after the November balloting.
As the immigration subcommittee hearing began, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers praised Colbert for drawing a roomful of onlookers and photographers. Then he asked the comedian to leave the room — and to leave the job of testifying to the expert witnesses, including Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez.
“You run your show, we run the committee,” said Conyers, D-Mich.
Congressional committees frequently invite entertainment or sports personalities to testify on specific issues in an attempt to draw media attention. Colbert has no background or expertise in either farm labor issues or immigration policy.
Colbert said he was there at the invitation of subcommittee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif. And Conyers later gave him the go-ahead, apparently hoping Colbert’s performance would counter the testimony of a political science professor who said illegal immigrants were competing with black and Hispanic citizens for jobs.
Colbert wiped his brow and launched into his mock right-wing schtick, demanding that lawmakers do something about the agriculture industry’s dependence on immigrant labor.
“I’m not a fan of the government doing anything,” Colbert insisted. “But I’ve got to ask, Why isn’t the government doing anything?”
Colbert’s humor drew guffaws from the audience and several Democrats on the subcommittee. But most of the Republicans sat stone-faced.
“Maybe we should be spending less time watching Comedy Central and more time considering all the real jobs that are out there,” said Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa.
At the close of the hearing, Colbert dropped his TV persona and turned serious, saying he was using his celebrity to bring attention to farm labor because “these seem to be the least of my brothers.”
“Right now migrant workers suffer and have no rights,” Colbert said.
The Insufferably Morally and Intellectual Left was taking the mickey out of you. They were mocking you. They are so far above you that you can’t even comprehend how brilliant this was…
Lofgren is also chairwoman of the House Homeland Security Committee’s subcommittee on border, maritime and global counterterrorism. So maybe we’ll soon hear Robin Williams’ take on countering terrorists sneaking in from Mexico.
The big question, presumably, is whether Lofgren will ask Williams and Carrey to appear as themselves, or as Mork the space alien and Carrey’s dopey character from “Dumb and Dumber.”
Big automatic tax increases loom. Afghanistan’s not going too well. Iran may soon have atomic weapons. You’d think Democrats holding such high positions of responsibility had more pressing things to do than listen to jokesters.
Oh, and the vote to stop the LARGEST TAX INCREASE IN AMERICA HISTORY on 1/1/11, The Democrats don’t really care enough.
Comedians doing faux testimony and ad hominem attack ads are far more compelling.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - U.S. House Republican leader John Boehner is criticizing Democratic leaders in Congress for postponing a vote on extending Bush-era tax cuts until after the Nov. 2 election.
But they are way smarter than you. That's why they are going to be trotting out the "grandma eating dog food" and "starving your kids" and "killing grandma" and "stealing your check" class warfare BS, et al.
FEAR IS HOPE
