'Colbert Report' is lawmakers' Siren

WASHINGTON, March 15 (UPI) -- Watching Stephen Colbert on Comedy Central, OK; being interviewed on "The Colbert Report," not OK, new members of the U.S. House of Representatives were told.

U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., the Democratic Caucus chairman, told new Democratic members of Congress to steer clear of Colbert, or at least his satirical Comedy Central program, "The Colbert Report," The Hill, a Washington newspaper, said.

"He said don't do it ... it's a risk and it's probably safer not to do it," U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn, said of taping a segment for the show.

But he did anyway and the segment was featured the "Better Know a District" series, in which Colbert asked Cohen whether he was a black woman. (He's not.)

The freshmen representatives said they respect Emanuel but they don't necessarily heed his counsel all the time. Avoiding the kind of publicity from a stint on "The Colbert Report" may be the only advice from Emanuel that freshman Democrats flat-out ignore, lawmakers told The Hill.

U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., debated the merits of throwing kittens into a wood chipper. U.S. Rep. Zack Space, D-Ohio, explained that he is not his predecessor, convicted felon Bob Ney, a Republican.