Bah Humbug!
My district will never appear on Stephen Colbert's 'Better Know a District' segment. This comes down from Tim Walz, my newly elected representative, in today's edition of the Post Bulletin.
More below
In an interview printed in todays edition, and kindly linked to above, we had the following question and answer:
Murphy's got an interesting profile, but you've really received a lot of focus. You mentioned that Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" has bee nafter to be on the "Your District [sic]" segment. Are you going to do it?
Nah. It was sort of funny to consider. If it was just me, I might try. I mean, when you're me, you have to laugh at me. But i don't want it to be poking fun at the district. I don't want people laughing at our district and that's some of what that segment is.
Tim Tim Tim Tim Tim...People have already laughed at our district. They've laughed hard at our district. Rob Cordry appeared in Rochester on his "Monsters of Goverment" tour cheering on Gil Gutknecht as he was meeting with one of Bush's Secretaries at the Mayo Clinic.
And long before that, perhaps even before Jon Stewart took over the reins of The Daily Show, people laughed as (I believe) Vance Degeneres interviewed the owner of a hotel in my hometown called The Anderson House. If you would like, at that particular hotel you can choose a complimentary cat with your room. One can imagine all the "free pootie" type jokes that ensued.
Tim, the point isn't that people will be laughing at our district if you appear on The Colbert Report. Every district has its humorous quirks. Every district in Delaware is funny because it's in Delaware (...sorry Delaware_Dem). It's supposed to be laughed at because noone watches a comedy show to learn about all the benefits associated with the Mayo Clinic.
In fact, Stephen Colbert makes the point better than anyone in the q&a immediately after the one I quoted above:
You'd mentioned that Colbert tried to call you out with some humor?
Yes. We were at Harvard for some sessions after the election and he was talking to our group. My face flashes on the screen, and he says 'Representative-elect Walz, you represent a district that makes Spam. You have a moral oblication to explain this to the country.'
Indeed, Mr. Walz, you do. I've been having to explain this to everyone I meet who finds out I grew up near Austin, MN.