Monday night, Stephen Colbert turned his gaze upon the impending Michigan primary, bringing up a couple recent statements by Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum and digging a little deeper into their meanings.

On Thursday’s Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert tackled the kerfuffle surrounding the controversial practice of posthumously baptizing deceased Holocaust victims in the Mormon church, which Elie Wiesel has called upon Mitt Romney to renounce. “What business is it of yours, Elie?” Colbert exclaimed incredulously. “I did some research and it turns out those 600,000 Jews are now Mormons!”

At the top of his show Monday night — his first since suspending production late last week — Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert took a little time to address some of the rumors that had been circulating about why, exactly, his show had temporarily stopped filming.

After a brief hiatus last week, The Colbert Report is returning to its normal production schedule tomorrow, with all four episodes planned to be released this week following The Daily Show. Last Wednesday and Thursday, the show suddenly halted production when, according to reports, Stephen Colbert‘s mother started feeling gravely ill and the comedian immediately dropped everything to be with his family.

According to the New York Post, Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert (shown here with his mother and his sister) is temporarily suspending The Colbert Report to tend to his ailing, 91-year-old mother, Lorna Colbert. Previously, it had been revealed that he had stopped production of his satirical news show due “an emergency in the family.”

If you just flipped over to Comedy Central to catch Stephen Colbert after a new episode of the Daily Show, you may have been surprised to catch Colbert talking about Herman Cain. Yes, there is a rerun of the show tonight, and it appears to be a new development, as those who had tickets to tonight’s taping received word that, due to “unforeseen reasons,” the show will be off for at least the week.

As we all know, there is a great war that is tearing our nation apart. No, viewers of Fox News, I’m not talking about the War on Christianity. And, no, viewers of MSNBC, I’m not talking about the War on Christians Who Are Just Normal Christians And Don’t Get All Up In People’s Faces About It. I’m talking, of course, about the Ice Cream War. Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon used to be best friends but are now worst enemies, partially because Fallon got a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor to rival Colbert’s and partially because they only signed on to be best friends forever for about six months. Since then, their battle has taken many forms like song and also animated song, but last night, on Late Night, it was full on war.

Stephen Colbert was enraged at President Obama‘s “vengeful crusade against the Catholic Church” “forcing priests to handout condoms at mass.” “I am outraged as a Catholic!” Colbert exclaimed. “No, no, I am outraged as the Catholic. I am sorry, Pope Benedict, but you lost my respect in 2010 when you came out in favor of universal health care. I say if Jesus wanted everyone to have insurance he’d have been crucified on a Blue Cross/Blue Shield!”

Fans of late night television are likely familiar with the running Stephen Colbert/Jimmy Fallon “feud,” which began — as these things often do — with sales of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. On Monday night’s Colbert Report, which returned after a week off, Colbert attempted to bury the hatchet with Fallon by writing him a Valentine’s Day card.

Much has been written in the past few months about how Stephen Colbert has been masterfully insinuating himself into real life politics with his Super PAC. Well, it’s about time for politicians to use him in return. Nancy Pelosi herself is using Colbert as a poster child to promote her the DISCLOSE Act, a bill designed to combat the Super PAC-allowing Citizen’s United decision. What’s fascinating though is that Pelosi’s Colbert-centered campaign doesn’t just use the comedian’s image, it tries to get in on the joke as well.

On Thursday’s Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert reported that Newt Gingrich was playing Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger at his campaign events without the band’s permission prompting them to sue the former Speaker of the House. “The power anthem from Rocky 3…an obvious parallel for Newt. He’s an underdog, a born scrapper, and he’s fighting for the chance to be smacked around by a black guy!”

On Tuesday’s Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert interviewed the ever-enigmatic Icelandic performer Björk, who was promoting her new album Biophilia. The Nordic songstress astounded the late-night comedian with an iPad app that corresponded with the music from the album and her tales of elves. Colbert was particularly enchanted by her innovative utilization of the iPad, opining, “This album in particular isn’t just music, it’s got this graphic interface here!”

Earlier today, Herman Cain stopped by CNN to discuss his life post-candidacy and he was asked about one of his most headline-grabbing activities; his partnership with Stephen Colbert. CNN’s Kyra Phillips asked him if he was worried that Colbert was “using him for a punchline.” A thoughtful Cain responded that it was a “mutual use.”

Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain enthusiastically tore into President Obama and his State of the Union address Tuesday night, calling the economy “anemic.” “With all due respect Mr. President, some of us are not stupid,” Cain exclaimed. “The state of the union is not good!”

It’s been a very, very wild ride for former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich– one that began with what appeared to be a quixotic campaign against presumptive nominee Mitt Romney, took a nosedive when his campaign staff resigned en masse, peaked too early before Iowa, fell once again as the focus shifted to Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman, and here we are again, I guess it must be fate.

Herman Cain is on the ballot in South Carolina which, given that he dropped out of the race a long time ago, would usually not be much of an issue. But thanks to Stephen Colbert‘s endorsement, Cain is once again a player. Having been a former frontrunner in the Republican race, however, Cain found himself defending his appearance with Colbert from claims that the two were “trivializing the process,” and told Neil Cavuto today that he did it to court youth and college voters, and that Colbert was correct in pointing out that the “FEC rules are broken.”

During a segment on CNN’s Newsroom, anchor Brooke Baldwin was utterly flummoxed by the notion that college students were getting their news from Stephen Colbert and Comedy Central. “Hang on, hang on! I have to stop you. Look — you said this is where students are getting their news?!” Baldwin asked incredulously. “On Comedy Central?!”

The rally that Stephen Colbert and Herman Cain are currently holding in South Carolina, the “Rock Me Like a Herman Cain: South Cain-olina Primary Rally,” is one of the most awesomely bizarre things currently going on in the world of politics (especially when you consider how many times Cain cancelled appearing on just Colbert’s regular show). However, it makes sense. As Cain said at the beginning, “Stephen Colbert couldn’t get on the ballot. I couldn’t get off it.” It’s a perfect partnership!

Fortunately for those of us not in South Carolina, MSNBC has the rally streaming live on the Internet and you can watch it below.

Comedy Central host and presidential hopeful Stephen Colbert visited the Morning Joe crew in South Carolina Friday to discuss the GOP race, as well as his (and Herman Cain’s) efforts in the state.

Appearing at a Winthrop University panel Thursday, NBC analyst Chuck Todd ripped into Stephen Colbert and his not-yet-official run, suggesting that Colbert might have some ulterior motives in the way he’s almost throwing his hat into the GOP primary ring:

Stephen Colbert has been very concerned about going to jail since he decided to explore a run for President of the United States (of South Carolina), so much so that he gave his SuperPAC to Jon Stewart and, apparently in complete non-coordination with each other, Colbert SuperPAC is going after Stephen Colbert. This time, the pro-Herman Cain ad stars Samuel L. Jackson, and blasts Colbert for “turning our election into a circus.”

Thanks to South Carolina election law, Stephen Colbert — who polled at 5% among GOP candidates with likely voters last week — is unable to officially accrue any votes as a write-in candidate in the Palmetto state’s primary this Saturday. So Colbert hit on an unlikely strategy: tell people who support him to cast their vote for Herman Cain. And Cain, whose name remains on the ballot despite suspending his campaign in early December, is welcoming the effort with open arms:

Is Stephen Colbert‘s satirical presidential run in South Carolina a veiled slap at Mitt Romney? MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell spoke with former Clinton Administration staffer Robert Reich on The Last Call, and examined the mischievous late-night host’s modus operandi.

How Jon Stewart got chef Mario Batali to feed him an omelet “mother bird” style in order to make a statement about Stephen Colbert‘s SuperPAC, we may never know, but that it happened is a fact on film. The new president of Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow took to the stage today wearing a tiara and spending money on insane and useless things, much like other SuperPACs have done for candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, and was legally unable to tell Colbert anything about it.

Stephen Colbert wasn’t able to get his name on the ballot in South Carolina despite polling at around 5% (better than Jon Huntsman!) down there, mostly because he didn’t even try. This is a problem for the SuperPAC that has definitely nothing to do with him, but they found a solution: find another name on the ballot no one is actually campaigning under, and squish Colbert in there. To that end, here is an (Non-)ColbertPAC ad endorsing “Herman Cain.”