Touches of Minnesota at 'Sanity' rally

WASHINGTON - While covering the "Rally to Restore Sanity" Saturday in D.C., Howard Kurtz was looking very St. Paul, 2008.

The former Washington Post media columnist, now D.C. bureau chief for the Daily Beast and anchor of CNN's "Reliable Sources," was wearing the RNC lanyard supplied by Qwest -- the one with the red elephants. To the lanyard Kurtz attached his media credential for the "Sanity" rally where Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert performed for a crowd estimated to exceed 200,000.

Why was Kurtz still wearing that old lanyard? "I just grabbed it. I didn't think about it," said Kurtz, who can be seen at startribune.com/video throwing it over his shoulder as he prepared to do some mike work for CNN. (From personal experience, I can tell you it's one of the finest quality lanyards ever distributed to media; it cleans up nicely, too, when slathered with Wisk before getting tossed into the washer.) Kurtz reported that 1,000 members of the media sought "Sanity" credentials but only 400 were issued.

The rally hosted by the Comedy Central anchors was a lengthy comedic diatribe on the loss of civility and the increase of fact-free chatter on TV, with a few musical cues sprinkled in to fit the script. Former Twin Cities writer David Carr, now of the New York Times, saw it as a grand assault on the media during which it would have been bad manners to attack the message so shots were taken at the messenger.

Not surprisingly, there was an abundance of silliness. But nothing was more ridiculous than the "Myth Busters" guys directing the crowd in the "wave" and then a mass jump to create an undetectable earthquake. I've never appreciated being asked to perform when others are the billed act.

I asked Kurtz why they were wasting our time with these antics. "This is part of the warmup," he said. "Maybe it's supposed to be lame so the other guys seem funny."

A fan far from home

The Minneapolis business analyst was jumping, waving her arms like a frantic airplane ground-traffic director and repeatedly yelling "C.J.!" as I stood on the risers, schmoozing with other members of the media, before the rally started. It was extremely noisy so I didn't hear her right way. But then I heard what sounded like my initials coming from three people. "I don't know who they were. I was yelling your name and they started helping me," Novitske explained later.

Novitske was casually scanning the media people positioned on the risers when she realized, "I know one of those people!" She told me she was one of the lucky people at a "Daily Show" taping the night Oprah appeared via satellite to bestow tickets to the rally -- including airplane tickets and accommodations -- to audience members. As you can see on my video, Novitske was holding a copy of her VIP rally ticket emblazoned with the Oprah logo.

Interesting that Novitske knew who I was, yet it never dawned on her to call me with a tip about these exciting personal developments? "It didn't occur to me," said Novitske. "I've been working a lot."

My jumping up and down moment (in my head, at least) came when Christiane Amanpour of ABC's "This Week" and rally underwriter Arianna Huffington of HuffingtonPost.com turned up in the media section.

Laughs, Minnesota-style

The Minnesota-born political satirist and "Daily Show" co-creator was seated in the VIP section of the rally. Later that day she had two performances at the Dome Theatre, which was full but not packed because the nearby streets and subways were. Before going on stage, Winstead was getting regrets via tweets from fans stuck in traffic and at Metro stops.

Her show was filled with Minnesota-accented barbs.

Winstead said that gay-bashing public figures who are later found to be fans of homosexual encounters should be able to find each other on "Larry Craig's List." (The former U.S. senator from Idaho was arrested in a Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport men's room for lewd conduct in 2007.)

Winstead also took a swipe at the Georgia minister I refer to as Pastor Eddie Wrong (Bishop Eddie Long), who "puts the 'L' in the 'DL,'" said Winstead, referencing the abbreviation for the "down low," a slang phrase for men who cheat with men while maintaining a heterosexual facade.

Winstead told the crowd that she was not optimistic that voters would reject Rep. Michele Bachmann, who Lizz calls a "human vuvuzela." Winstead's mom, Ginny Winstead, is a big Bachmann fan, so Ginny, too, figured prominently in the show.

Never mind that Lizz can tolerate neither the politics nor sight of the man in line to become the next speaker of the House.

"Not really getting it," Lizz said of her mom's taste.

Lizz also got huge laughs while marveling at her mom repeating the ridiculous drivel that President Obama is taking America toward socialism -- all while "she's on Medicare, Social Security and she gets veterans benefits."