Earlier this month, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she wouldn’t recommend members make an appearance on The [tag]Colbert Report[/tag]’s “[tag]Better Know A District[/tag]” segment. As Pelosi put it, “Why would anybody go on there?”
In retrospect, Rep. [tag]Robert Wexler[/tag] (D-Fla.) probably should have paid closer attention.
Rep. Robert Wexler, a Democrat who represents the Boca Raton area in Florida, skated through the first part of the interview segment with good humor. Colbert usually poses offbeat or absurd questions and traps his guests into making revealing or just embarrassing statements.
His final approach on Thursday was to point out to Wexler that since he was basically unopposed for re-election this year he could probably say anything and it would not hurt him at all. So Colbert suggested: Now this is “just kidding,” but why don’t you say something that would normally cost you the election, even if not true — for example, that you enjoy [tag]cocaine[/tag] because “it is a fun thing to do”?
Wexler laughed and amiably repeated: “Because it’s a fun thing to do.” Presumably he does not use cocaine, but he went along with the gag. Colbert, trying to get him clearly on the record, then said, no, say the whole thing, and Wexler dutifully replied: “I enjoy cocaine because it’s a fun thing to do.”
Then Colbert got him to say the same thing about seeing prostitutes — and finally that using cocaine and [tag]prostitutes[/tag] at the same time was really fun.
If you missed it, you can catch the whole clip via You Tube. It’s painfully funny.
Note to press secretaries everywhere: when your boss plans to sit down with Colbert, encourage him or her not to boast about illegal conduct, even jokingly. It’s just not worth the headaches.