BlogWatch: Colbert Live

Stephen Colbert, political talk show satirist and ersatz presidential candidate, and Frank Rich, Maureen Dowd’s Sunday pagemate, held an event in New York at the 92nd Street Y. AlisaR of DailyKos was there and gave of full report including this little insight into the secret workings of the Vast Liberal Mockery:

Maureen Dowd asked him to write his column before she was aware he was running for president. (‘Is it real or a joke?’ someone asked; "what’s the difference" he replied.) "Why do you want me to write your column" he reportedly asked Ms. Dowd; "Why did Tom Sawyer want that kid to paint his fence" she retorted.

Even off the cuff, Dowd is making brilliant and perceptive allusions to classic American literature. Tom Sawyer used psychology to trick kids into doing his work for him. And judging by the continued internet buzz over the ColbertDowd column, someone is getting plenty of mileage from it. Just who is using who here?

The anecdote is confirmed by Mixed Media blog at Portfolio.com. Jeff Bercovici also reveals that the heavy lifting for that column was really done by two Colbert Report staff writers. There goes my theory that Dowd was doing a brilliant spot-on Colbert meta-parody. So it goes.