When my out-of-state friends give me crap about Wu's bizarre behavior, I just tell them that David must have been doing some personal research on the strength and purity of medical marijuana being grown in Oregon shortly before he gave that speach.

Nice to see that the folks at The Daily Show agreed with (most of) us.

New score in this Klingon pillow-fight, as it were:

Daily Show 1, Wu 0.

Oregonians will be living this one down for years, like PPS in Doonesbury, it will live on forever.

And I suspect that is NOT what Wu wanted for his legacy, to be seen as a Star Trek freak, and not a thinking, feeling congressman.

I have met congressman Wu many times and I am proud to have as my congressman and know him to be a very smart man who speaks very well. I dont get this speech at all its very unlike him which leads me to ask the question who writes his speechs? By the way props to the daily show for once again creating a very funny clip I love that show.

I suspect that I am like 99.85% of the people. I don't care if Wu uses Vulcans or Klingons to make his point. I thought it was funny and a good break from the dullness of congressional testimony.

If your listening Congressman, don't let the critics bother you.

However, just in in case Wu decides to run for prez, I'll go ahead and reserve the domain name:

http://klingon-veterans-for-truth.com

It'll be my little preemptive strike against Rove and crew!

Having worked on Star Trek (The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager) myself, I thought Congressman Wu's remarks were funny.

But I think the White House is more like a hive of Borg. Just a bunch of mindless drones who march around in lock step doing whatever the "collective" tell them. Their entire Iraq policy: Resistance in Futile.

Maybe we should just refer to Cheney as 2 of 9.

<hr/>

Oregon's Star Trek connections are growing. The Director of the Oregon Film & Video Office (Steve Oster) is a former producer of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

I'm completely with Bert on this one. Wu was calling out the Bushie chicken hawks, and doing it in a way that I'm sure the vast majority of his constituents understood perfectly. People forget that he represents Oregon's Silicon Forest. Getting a laugh out of it is certainly reasonable, but imagining that Wu hurt himself with it is pretty stupid, if you ask me.

Beam me up, Scotty, there's no intelligent life here!

I agree with dyspeptic. Most people have at least a passing familiarity with Star Trek, and if using Trek-inspired metaphors helps Rep. Wu make his point more effectively, then he should.

Besides, Trek was hardly devoid of philosophical content. Characters in those series have navigated many moral and ethical dilemmas. I think I learned much as a child by watching Captain Picard deal with situations. Yes, it's not Sophocles or Shakespeare, but it's better than most of the entertainment that people use to pass their time.

My impression of Wu early in his run as a congressman, to my own mostly limited knowledge of what he's done there, is that he wasn't too sharp. (I still kind of place a lot of emphasis on personality perceived to get a personal idea of what someone is all about.) Some years back, he naively made some comment that someone was able to foil him for awhile with by suggesting he had a racist disposition or some such thing.

Gradually, it is seeming more like Wu is actually a true-blooded fair minded person, but still maybe a little naive. What other kind of person would risk using a StarTrek analogy in front of Congress? His having done so makes him more human than some of those others up there.

I don't have cable or even the means to see the clip above. I used to watch Stewart when he was on regular broadcast. He's funny, and has got plenty of plaudits for his more substantial than usual comedy satire fare, but fundamentally, he's just a clown always desperately seeking his daily fix of ratings gathering material, so I don't expect much from him.

StarTrek original was very definitely written with worthy philosophical, political, sociological objectives in mind. DS9 too. There should really be no shame at all for even a congressman to draw from them to make a solid point to an important demographic. Wu's comments may come to haunt the Bush administration far more than Wu himself.

One of these days, maybe I'll be able to laugh and chortle at the unmitigated carnage of Iraq.

As a teacher, I see images of children stepping over bloody body parts, heads, arms, legs, one hand was still in handcuffs, on their way to school, and want to cry.

Then, another suicide bomb, no, two suicide bombs, at... the university.

Wu's funnier every day, huh folks???

Mencken was right -- you people get the government you deserve. Good and hard. While W, Cheney and their bastard grandchild laugh at your naivete.

I agree with Eric: Borgs all the way. Nearly unstoppable machines that sacrifice the living to create something that will agree with TPTB and lock-step together as one mind. I agree with Frank Dufay: Use laughter, satire, and humor as a weapon; those mechanical little people running our country right now can't stand being laughed at. -- Bjo

Wu's tenure has been unremarkable. This most recent episode only further erodes his lack of credibility with his congressional colleagues on both sides of the aisle. While David is a tough campaigner and an amazing fund raiser - his career in congress has been lackluster at best. While Hooley, Blumenauer and Defazio have all benefited dramatically from the recent D takeover in the House, Wu continues to occupy space on the back bench as a mediocre at best member of congress. Time to "beam him" back to Oregon and upgrade our representation in the first district. What an embarassment!

I've said it before, and I promise to say it again: David Wu's votes FOR the Bankruptcy "Reform" Bill and the Medicare Prescription..."Thing" have taken away any credibility he may have had with me. DLC all the way...That's "Democrats Licking Corporate-asses..."!

Other than being a good opportunity for a laugh, is this really significant. With all the bad behavior by members of Congress and the executive branch, does Rep. Wu really deserve criticism over this?

<h2>That said, I'll stick with my claim that Ferengi would have been a better analogy.</h2>