VP Biden, Colbert Fete Troops          09/09 05:49

   A hot dog vending cart was wheeled back and forth. Cocktail waitresses 
hurried past with trays full of beer. Vice President Joe Biden led New York 
Yankees great Yogi Berra by the arm.

   NEW YORK (AP) -- A hot dog vending cart was wheeled back and forth. Cocktail 
waitresses hurried past with trays full of beer. Vice President Joe Biden led 
New York Yankees great Yogi Berra by the arm.

   Such was the bizarre, red-white-and-blue circus backstage at comedian 
Stephen Colbert's celebration of U.S. troops' return from Iraq. The Comedy 
Central host pulled out all the stops Wednesday night for the first part of his 
two-episode special, "Been There: Won That: The Returnification of the 
American-Do Troopscape."

   It was a somewhat rare show of exultation to what President Barack Obama has 
called the end of combat operations in Iraq. Some 50,000 troops remain in the 
Middle East country, where local forces have a tenuous hold on security. 
Fighting in Afghanistan also continues.

   Those truths were never far from "The Colbert Report" on Wednesday, but 
Colbert made the evening's tone clear at the start.

   "I'm not going to debate this war," said Colbert, in mock pundit character. 
"It's been seven years. Who can remember who invaded who?"

   Instead he declared: "Tonight is for the troops."

   The show's studio audience was packed with active troops and veterans, whom 
Colbert lavished with hot dogs, beer and ice cream. Biden played the part of 
hot dog vendor. Gen. Ray Odierno, the outgoing U.S. military commander in Iraq, 
donned a toupee of Colbert's hair. (Odierno famously shaved Colbert's head --- 
on Obama's orders --- when the comedian broadcast four episodes of "The Report" 
from Baghdad last year.)

   Colbert opened the show atop a tank, which rolled down the street outside 
his show's Manhattan studio. Colbert, looking more at home than Democratic 
presidential candidate Michael Dukakis did in 1988, pretended to shoot the 
letter C on a nearby building with the tank's guns.

   "Jay Leno doesn't have one of these," said Colbert, patting the tank with 
pride.

   Colbert may parody conservatives, but his support of the men and women in 
the military is unwavering. He has raised thousands of dollars for the Yellow 
Ribbon Fund, a charity that assists injured service members and their families, 
and he's a board member of DonorsChoose.org, which is raising money for the 
education of children of parents in the military.

   "Sometimes," Colbert said earlier to The Associated Press, "my character and 
I agree."

   But for all the over-the-top celebration of Wednesday's show, Colbert 
continually highlighted the paradox of reveling in a war not fully over.

   He asked Odierno whether a noncombat troop was "a mime troop" and had the 
general acknowledge soldiers still in Iraq are receiving combat pay. He 
wondered if Iraq was "the war that cried, 'Over.'" And he joked that if you 
could tell the difference between a noncombat troop and a combat troop, "Then 
you're the president of the United States."

   Live satellite feeds to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan were piped in as well.

   Colbert even trotted out Berra, the Yankees' catcher of the 1950s and a 
World War II veteran, as the show's "conflict analyst." Berra announced his 
predictable analysis: "Stephen, it ain't over till it's over."

   Biden didn't try to claim otherwise. He said the war in Iraq won't be over 
until there's "a political solution."

   "This is a significant milestone, but we're not there yet," he said.

   Colbert coaxed the vice president into looking into the camera to thank 
former President George W. Bush for honoring the members of the military.

   Inside the studio, "The Colbert Report" similarly heaped reverence for the 
troops and their sacrifice. A stage manager, awed at their immediate response 
to cues to stand or sit, wished every audience could be so compliant.

   On the whole, politics were kept out of it.

   Before morphing into character, Colbert took questions from his uniformed 
audience. Asked to which political party he was registered, he replied, "None 
of your business," before confessing he wasn't registered to any party. Asked 
if he voted for Obama in 2008, he replied, "Are there any other questions?"


(KA)