Robert Gibbs Looks To Jon Stewart To Help Get 9/11 First Responders Bill Through

There’s been a lot of talk about comedians being too involved in politics recently and it’s all seemed rather silly. Comedians and satirists have been an essential part of running a government since the first king decided he wanted a guy in a goofy hat to hang out in his throne room. However this story, about Robert Gibbs praising Jon Stewart is sure to get a lot of tongues wagging. And it should. Just not in the way it surely will.

Today in a press briefing, Robert Gibbs praised Stewart on his recent fight to get the bill passed. Politico has the rundown:

“Robert Gibbs, President Obama’s press secretary, told reporters on Tuesday that he hopes the Comedy Central host can persuade enough Republican senators to vote for a 9/11 health bill so it can head to the president’s desk.

‘If there’s the ability for that to sort of break through in our political environment, there’s a good chance that he can help do that,’ Gibbs said in his briefing. ‘I think he has put the awareness around this legislation. He’s put that awareness into what you guys cover each day, and I think that’s good. I hope he can convince two Republicans to support taking care of those that took care of so many on that awful day in our history.'”

Look, my guess is that this isn’t nearly as ridiculous as the phrasing in the Politico article suggests. They say Gibbs “hopes” Stewart can “persuade” Republicans. However, from the text of Gibbs’ response, it seems to me that it’s most likely that he was responding to a question along the lines of “Did you see that Daily Show episode and do you think it helped?” and that he was just giving Stewart the praise that he (and Shep Smith) deserve. Still, that’s not how this story is going to be taken. It’s already not being taken that way.

And, you know what? I’m fine with that. Hopefully, once this story gets twisted into one about Congress needing a comedian to get them to do their jobs, they’ll be further shamed into passing a bill they should have passed a long time ago. So, whether it’s “factually accurate” or not, let me be the first to say, ladies and gentlemen, your government is apparently incapable of passing a bill to help 9/11 first responders without the aid of a host on a network named Comedy Central.

Of course, that probably won’t even work and the story will just become “Obama Administration is being secretly run by the Daily Show” or something like that and we can all just cry ourselves to sleep while true, American heroes die.

(h/t Soup)

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.