Yep. He went there. Watch this video from last night's show.
And of course, using her own logic to excuse Rush Limbaugh's remarks, Stephen points out this is simply satire.
So it's important to say this:
"Sarah Palin is a fucking retard!"
/ satire
:-)
More coverage of what Stephen did from:
Huffington Post
Raw Story
Talking Points Memo
Dan Savage
And it's funny to see Newsbusters' Noel Sheppard completely NOT get the satire Stephen is doing. It goes right over his head, and rest assured he's exactly the kind of person Stephen is mocking in this segment.
Mediaite's Tommy Christopher had this gem to say about it.
I’ve been getting pretty frustrated with the usually reliable Keith Olbermann’s inability to nail Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin on Limbaugh’s use of the term "retard." Sure, he has posited Palin as a hypocrite, but several times he has repeated Rush’s and Palin’s dueling assertions that he was "quoting" Rahm Emanuel, or that he was being "satirical," without really challenging it.
Luckily, Stephen Colbert actually knows what the word "satire" means, and deployed a pile of it on Palin and Rush last night.
As I’ve said before, Rush was obviously not quoting Rahm Emanuel, and if he was satirizing anyone, it was Palin for trying to police his use of the word "retard." He clearly actually thinks it’s OK to use the word "retard" as an insult, even if he’s afraid to stand by it.
Look, it’s a free country, you’re allowed to say "retard," but I’m also allowed to say you’re a gutless jerk for it, and I’m also allowed to say that Sarah Palin can take her crocodile tears for the families of the disabled and dip some tea bags in ‘em. Apparently, those folks will swallow anything.
Oooh. Burn.
Oh, also, check out what Jon Stewart and Lewis Black said about Sarah Palin. Jon covered her use of her hand as a cheat sheet, and Lewis went over the "retarded" comment from Rush.