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What You Missed Last Night: Colbert "defends" Barney Frank

Yesterday we showed you a clip of Wolf Blitzer and Lou Dobbs talking about the 2007 arrest of Barney Frank's partner for growing pot plants at their home in Maine. Last night Stephen Colbert defended Frank. Well, sort of.

[Watch clips and episodes of The Colbert Report and other shows at SlashControl.]

What You Missed Last Night: Scoldplay

Are you sick of the whole Representative Joe Wilson controversy yet? Were you sick of it four or five days ago? Jon Stewart and The Daily Show are too, and last night they showed how the people asking for an apology from Wilson are being hypocritical, and how both sides do this all the time and then ask for an apology when the other side does it.

In other words, politics really suck.

Don't count on Fox giving up Glee for Obama

President_ObamaThe only way Fox will air President Obama's prime time address next Wednesday will be if he joins the glee club. No, seriously, if the Prez could sing or dance with the kids at McKinley High School on the new Fox series, Glee, he'd have a better chance of getting air time than he does as the Commander in Chief. Fox is not expected to show President Obama's address to Congress.

Fox has already shown an unwillingness to interrupt prime time for President Obama. Back in March, the network chose not to air a press conference. To be honest, Obama has been on TV a lot more than President George W. Bush. All that prime time real estate is expensive, and the networks have squawked about how often Obama has requested the air time.

Continue reading Don't count on Fox giving up Glee for Obama

The chair recognizes Senator Winfrey of Illinois

OprahGovernor Blagojevich is nuts. Blame it on his flimsy grasp of reality or his hard-hat like haircut, the current (for how long, who knows) governor of Illinois is not quite there. How do we know this? Well, rather than appearing at his own impeachment trial he's decided to let the good citizens of the U.S. know that he's being railroaded by his own government via various media outlets.

The other determining factor on his nuttiness...he was considering naming Oprah Winfrey as Barack Obama's replacement to the U.S. Senate. Now, while Oprah is a respectable personality who has done much good for people around the globe, she is in no way qualified to become a U.S. Senator. I know that some of you Oprahites would heartily disagree with this, but even you know, deep down inside, that giving Oprah a Senate seat would not be a good idea.

And, frankly, I think Oprah would agree with you.

Continue reading The chair recognizes Senator Winfrey of Illinois

Christopher Guest to direct ABC comedy pilot

christopher guestChristopher Guest has agreed to direct the pilot for The Thick of It, a comedy being created for ABC by Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz. The show is being adapted for an American audience from the popular British comedy by the same name. In Britain, it was about a member of Parliament who had to deal with inept politicians, a prime minister and other silly minions. I can only guess that the American version will take place in Congress?

According to his IMDB bio, Guest hasn't done much directing for television lately. He seems to stick to the "mockumentary" (he hates that word) movie genre that's heavy on improv, such as Best in Show and Waiting for Guffman.

Congress salutes America Ferrera

America Ferrara Golden Globes

The temptation to make the headline "America salutes America" was great, but I resisted. Congresswoman Hilda L. Solis took the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday to salute America Ferrera for her Golden Globe win and for "breaking down barriers for Latinos in prime-time television...I commend America and everyone involved in Ugly Betty for helping break down stereotypes and provide a role model for young Latinas." (Heck, she deserves praise for being one of the only non-Brits to snag an award. It was a regular Anglophile-o-rama at the Globes on Monday.)

Solis' own work in "breaking down barriers" isn't too shabby either. She was the first Latina elected to the California State Senate, and she is serving her third Congressional term. She was also the first Latina to receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. Maybe giving Betty this nod will win her a guest spot on the show where she can come and convince Betty to give up the frivolous world of fashion for a turn at politics.

The Daily Show: January 9, 2007

Jon Stewart"Global War on Terror" (dun dun dun!): The Taliban has regrouped in Afghanistan, it seems. And there's also some al-Qaeda business going on in Somalia, so "we're back in Somalia, a country so poor, its charity ads run in Ethiopia."

As for terrorism-related goings-on in the States, Barack Obama hasn't been having much luck with his name. People keep botching it up accidentally (I'm tempted to put quotation marks around that) to connect it to Osama and stressing his middle name, Hussein. Correspondent Aasif Mandvi talked about the issue... His "My Cock Taintstain Osama" joke didn't get a very positive response... I was surprised! Daily Show audiences always love the word "taintstain"!

Continue reading The Daily Show: January 9, 2007

The Daily Show: December 11, 2006

Jon Stewart"Indie Rock": The Seminole tribe are taking over the Hard Rock Cafe chain. Fun Fact: Smallpox jokes are still too soon... Apparently. Fun Fact 2: Korn (or... Maize) fans are still alive and well.

"That's All Folks!": The 109th Congress is finished! Hurrahs all around in the Daily Show crowd. I liked the little montage at the end (Katherine Harris: Still haunts the dreams of children). The bit with Lincoln Chafee, the night's guest, was a special treat.

Continue reading The Daily Show: December 11, 2006

The Daily Show/The Colbert Report: November 7, 2006

Jon and StephenAfter seeing Comedy Central's as for this Daily Show/Colbert Report "Midterm Midtacular" mash-up , I expected a lot more integration. Aside from the obvious change in content, this special wasn't all that, um, special. It was just like the usual Stewart/Colbert block, but with one or two more check-ins. No breaking news. No balloon drops. No t-shirt giveaways. Ehh.

Continue reading The Daily Show/The Colbert Report: November 7, 2006

Congress weighs in on Dog the Bounty Hunter case

dog the bounty hunterWhile Duane "Dog" Chapman awaits trial to decide if he'll be tried in Mexico after his recent arrest for illegal detention of convicted rapist and Max Factor heir Andrew Luster, twenty-nine members of Congress have asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to deny the Mexican government's extradition request to have Chapman sent there for trial. Chapman, along with his son Leland and partner Tim Chapman, were arrested by Mexican authorities for illegal detention after capturing Luster in 2003. The three posted bail but never returned for their court date. Bounty hunting is illegal in Mexico, and Chapman refused to relinquish Luster to the Mexican authorities. Plans to have Chapman extradited to Mexico were put in motion only a few days before the statute of limitations was set to expire.

Former Apprentice contestant is running for Congress

Raj Peter BhaktaYou knew this was going to happen eventually; one of the rejected contestants from The Apprentice is now running for Congress. Raj Peter Bhakta, a "fired" season two participant, is the Republican candidate in Pennsylvania's 13th district, and he's using some grandiose methods to discuss his platform. For instance, this article mentions that earlier this week he marched an elephant and a six-piece mariachi band across the Rio Grande in Texas to demonstrate how easy it is for illegal immigrants to come into the country (suffice to say, Bhakta wants a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border).

Those of you who remember the bow-tie-clad Bhakta from the Tump-fest already know he had a bit of the showman in him; he wore colorful suits and walked around with a cane on the show, and in one episode tried to get a date from tennis babe Anna Kournikova (he lost the challenge she proposed, and he had to run around Arthur Ashe Stadium in his underwear with his team firing tennis balls at him).

Oh, and because I'm nothing but fair, here's the website for Raj's opponent, incumbent Democrat Allyson Schwartz.

Real Time With Bill Maher preview - VIDEO

Bill MaherTonight's episode of HBO's Real Time With Bill Maher will air live from Washington, D.C. His guests will be National security expert Richard Clarke, Robin Williams, MSNBC's Chris Matthews, Florida Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and Senator Lincoln Chafee. We know they'll touch on all of the topics in the news this week (the war in Iraq, Mark Foley, next month's elections), but Maher ends the show with a special D.C.-centric set of "New Rules," his very funny (but often wise) series of observations about, well, just about everything. Check out a special preview video of Maher's D.C. rules after the jump.

My favorite line, about certain Republicans: "I know it's D.C. and I know it's hard out there for a blimp, but it's time to come to grips with the fact that there's only one woman in town who finds you two attractive, and she's banging Carville."

Continue reading Real Time With Bill Maher preview - VIDEO

Odd picture of the day: Mark Foley does Idol



OK, is it possible to find a weirder picture? Maybe if we had a picture of President Bush, Carrot Top, Adam West, and Jessica Simpson together it would be more bizarre, but this one's pretty good. In the pic: IM aficianado Mark Foley, Lou Gossett, Jr., Kelly Clarkson, producer Terry Likona, and American Idol judge Randy Jackson. It was taken earlier this year at a Grammys on the Hill dinner.

Foley and Likona look really, really happy, Gossett and Clarkson look like they don't know what's going on, and Jackson looks like he really doesn't want to be there at all.

Foley...out!

[via Gawker]

The Daily Show: October 4, 2006

The Daily Show"Paged Heat": Groans for the "GOP BBQ and nude Cub Scout wrestling" joke. Well, actually, the reaction for all the Mark Foley coverage can probably just be summed up in one massive, disgusted groan. How could Jon have possibly been surprised when the audience got all grossed out from his joke about Foley finger-banging two sophomores from Model UN on the catwalk of the rotunda? Eww.

Continue reading The Daily Show: October 4, 2006

Law & Order creator crossing over to comedy

nbc logoDick Wolf, who has brought NBC success with various versions of the Law & Order franchise, has two comedy scripts lined up for NBC. One is a single-camera comedy about a fumbling U.S. Congressman and the staff that try to handle him. The other is a medical sitcom about ER docs and paramedics. I think I've seen both of these shows before, they were called Spin City and Scrubs. Right now, neither show has a title.

I'd be interested to see what Dick Wolf's sense of humor is like. The man's entire resume is made up of crime dramas.

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