Stephen Colbert, the mock-hyperconservative who lacerates Republicans nightly on his Comedy Central show, has apparently been reading The Washington Times lately (although he clearly is a couple weeks behind). On his show Tuesday, he showed a screen-grab of this blog, from the entry titled "McCain: Triskaidekaphobiac!" (The story ran in The Times on April 16.)

"According to The Washington Times, John McCain always carries around a lucky penny, a lucky nickel, a lucky quarter, a lucky feather, and lucky compass and a lucky four-leaf clover," Colbert said. "The only unlucky thing around John McCain is the person behind him at airport security." Yeah, not very funny, so Colbert then worked up a superstition-age joke which was a bit better. "A lot of people don't know that superstition, but it's an old saying from McCain's childhood: Throw a hat on the bed, woolly mammoth make you dead."

OK, not much better. But while you're on his site, check out his bit from Monday on J.D. Salinger — hilarious.

See the clip here (you might have to scroll down to the one titled "McCain's Superstitions."

And we'll forgive Colbert for being a couple weeks behind The Times. We didn't see his show until the next day because by the time he comes on, we've already been in bed for hours.

— Joseph Curl, senior White House correspondent, The Washington Times