Maybe it just means that Republicans don’t have the balls (or Thatchers)

There’s a blurb in today’s Washington Post about the ratio of Democratic vs. Republican representatives who have appeared on the Better Know a District segment of The Colbert Report, with at least the title of the article suggesting that Stephen favors Democrats. Me, I just think it means that the Democrats are the ones with the cojones to appear on the Report, but see what you think. From the Washington Post (internal links omitted):

Is He Too Blue? A Great Divide in Colbert’s TV ‘District’
By Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts
Thursday, October 11, 2007; Page C03

Today’s word: bipartisan.

Last we checked, Republicans held nearly 47 percent of the House of Representatives. But you wouldn’t know it from Stephen Colbert’s “Better Know a District” segments on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report.” Since the faux-news wit started doing the mock civics-lesson interviews with congressfolk almost two years ago, he’s gotten to know far more blue districts than red.

The satirist’s “Better Know a District” has featured 43 Democrats but just 10 Republicans on Comedy Central.

How many more? Forty-three Democratic members of the House (or challengers for it) have been featured, and only 10 Republicans.

Comedy Central rep Steve Albani says Colbert is an equal-opportunity satirist, reaching out to both parties — but Republicans repeatedly turn him down. “I don’t know why they chose not to do it,” he told our colleague Paul Farhi.

The irony is that Democrats have been the ones publicly dissing Colbert. Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) warned incoming freshmen in March about setting themselves up for ridicule on the show; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi huffed last year that she wouldn’t recommend that “anyone” do a spot. (Though we thought D.C.’s own Eleanor Holmes Norton held her own quite well.)

Whereas Republicans have sort of made nice. Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), the very first “Better Know” profile, urged his GOP colleagues to join the fun. And in a newspaper op-ed piece, Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) called it “one of the best appearances I’ve made as a congressman.” Maybe he needs to get out more.