I'm Going to Carolina

If you've been paying attention, you know that Mitt Romney won the Iowa Caucus. Okay, now if you've really been paying attention, you now know that he didn't. It seems some ballots have been lost or miscounted and now Rick Santorum is the winner. He wont' be declared the winner because of all the errors and inconsistencies, but he does have more votes. Imagine what it might have been like in New Hampshire if Iowa had not made this "oops". If Santorum had come out of Iowa as the declared winner, people in New Hampshire probably would have been more inclined to vote for him.

In other political news for the GOP, New Gingrich received the endorsement of Rick Perry when Perry dropped out. Great news for Gingrich until a short time later when wife number two (so, not the current one, but the previous one) revealed in an interview that Newt wasn't exactly Mr. Family Values.

Stephen took time out of talking politics to have a sit-down interview with retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. Justice Stevens has a new book out, "Five Chiefs" a memoir about his time on the Supreme Court. Although at first disappointed to not be able to interview an actual sitting Justice, Stephen eventually settled in for a comfortable interview, in fact so comfortable that he asked if Justice Stevens could fix a speeding ticket for him. Conclusion: "You're Guilty." Stephen took it well.

We learned some interesting tidbits of information tonight. For example, do you know what the "Highest Court in the Land" refers to? It is actually a basketball court on the fifth floor of the Supreme Court Building. I did not know that. Also, Justice Stevens wrote the dissenting opinion for Citizens United.

Stephen did not think that Justice Stevens should be able to judge people just because he is a justice. I can see Stephen's point, after all, "Judge Not." But, still, that's kind of the whole purpose of the Supreme Court.

When he was nearly done with the interview, Stephen asked, "Are there any decisions you made that you later regretted?"

"Other than this interview? No."

Tonight's guest was Carrie Rebora Barratt, Associate Director for Collections over at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She and Stephen discussed a huge painting and a very famous one, Washington Crossing the Delaware. She did say that when they had the painting restored, they checked on the back of the painting for the key to the Revolution. Stephen pointed out a fob on the painting. Interesting. Stephen is quite observant.

You do know that typically, after the last commercial, Stephen just waves and says "Good Night." But every once in a while there is something different. Tonight was one of those nights. There was a very special treat. So special that I'm not going to tell you what it was. You need to go over to Colbert Nation later on and watch tonight's show online. I will say this, Stephen is very talented. (Hint: Look at the names in the Labels for this post.)