Gonzo will be grilled by YouTubers, a la the Big CNN-YouTube Extravaganza
Welcome to the newest reality show, "Last Republican Standing"!
IS THIS A SPOOF? Yes, it is. I just spoke to the writer.

YouTube, the video-sharing Web site that is already reshaping the form of presidential debates, will now try its hand at revolutionizing Senate Judiciary Committee hearings.

With the blessing of Congress, YouTube plans to grill the United States Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, "and get the denials that the Senate Judiciary Committee can’t."

Couldn't they get anywhere on their own?

"It was clear we weren’t gong to get anywhere on our own," noted Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the top Republican on the panel.

Oh.

Specter was even hopeful that the "mind-bending format," in which Gonzales will have to deliver answers to video-recorded questions sent in by the public, will help encourage others to come forward to testify "and grab their chance for fame." The Pennsylvania senator said it was one thing to stonewall "a bunch of elected old white men in suits with subpoena power," but quite another to turn up an opportunity at the latest reality production.

One of the criticisms of the CNN debate was that it got a little silly. This is very serious business, what with Gonzo perjuring himself and all. I can't imagine that this will get as YouTubey as those wacky presidential debates did.

Some of the videos do not ask questions at all. In one, a man plays guitar and sings a song — "If I had a Problem" — about the attorney general’s plans to stay on and "fix the problems" in the Justice Department, which is sung to the tune of "If I had a hammer" by Lee Hays and Pete Seeger.

Song parodies at a Judiciary hearing? No way!

"What would you, as attorney general do to make it up to me?" Ashcroft sings into the camera to the same musical score as his famous "Let the Eagle Soar."

Way. Oy. Oy way.

One political insider said, "If Congress can’t vote Gonzales ‘off the island.’ They’re going to enlist YouTube to do it for them. There is no end to where this could go, especially if Rupert Murdoch buys it."

Kill me now.

UPDATE FROM GOTTALAFF: We're all asking the same question: Is this for real? Here's the byline:

By Philip Maddocks

GateHouse News Service

Fri Jul 27, 2007, 10:30 AM EDT
Click on my link and see for yourself. It doesn't appear to be spoofy, but we can all agree, it's just bizarre.

UPDATE #2: I just called the paper, and Maddocks' voice mail picked up. I left a message for him to call me back. Meantime, I did speak to somebody else who said he's legit, but occasionally does do satire. This just has to be one of those, don't you think? The minute I find out, I'll update again.

UPDATE #3: Yep, he's as nuts as we are. A really nice guy who said that maybe he needed to be even spoofier to avoid any further confusion. I told him we'd suspected as much, but we had to be sure...and with the way things are these days, we all had to wonder, even if just for a moment, if this could happen.