Stephen Colbert’s quasi-joke presidential candidacy is back to being strictly a joke.

Despite the mock conservative blowhard’s semi-serious effort to become a real candidate

in his native South Carolina, the state’s Democratic Party poobahs refused to play along. To get on the ballot, Colbert’s campaign paid a $2,500 filing fee just before the noon deadline Thursday.

But after about 40 minutes of discussion by top party officials, the executive council voted 13-3 to keep the host of Comedy Central’s ”Colbert Report” off the ballot. “He’s really trying to use South Carolina Democrats as suckers so he can further a comedy routine,” sniffed Waring Howe, a member of the executive council. And, he added, Colbert only  ”serves to detract from the serious candidates on the ballot.”

 It was unclear whether Howe was referring to Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel.

Colbert’s check will be refunded. He passed on trying to win a spot on the South Carolina Republican ballot, where the filing fee is $35,000. (When Colbert announced his candidacy on his show last month, he said he had planned to run as a Democrat and a Republican so he could lose twice.)

Not surprisingly, Colbert got in the last word on his show:

“Fine, it’s your loss, Democrats. I had a lot of great ideas. You see this? You see this?” he said, holding up a folder marked “IRAQ.” “It’s my exit strategy for Iraq? Foolproof. You know what? Burn it.”
 

This entry was posted on Friday, November 2nd, 2007 at 9:43 am and is filed under Democrats, Presidential, Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.