The book of Lizz

A GOP member with a sense of humor might actually appreciate Lizz Winstead’s rabid tweets: One reads, “These tea partiers all must have Rand Paul as their eye doctor because none of them see racism anywhere.” Another states, “When Carly Fiorina says, ‘I ran the largest technology company in the world,’ she always leaves out the ‘into the ground’ part.”

Then again, maybe not.

When not tweeting, the Daily Show cocreator and Brooklyn-based political satirist appears regularly on Sirius XM Satellite Radio and The Joy Behar Show; she’s also working on a book of personal essays slated for publication in 2011. Winstead will be in town for a writing workshop Monday 1 at the Beat Kitchen, and at Mayne Stage on election night she’ll present her one-woman show Dumb-ocracy at Work!, which takes aim at the Glenn Becks and Sarah Palins and will incorporate the returns. We asked Winstead to sound off on…

…her conservative origins.
“I grew up in Minneapolis, which is sort of the People’s Republic of the Midwest, but what’s so bizarre is that my parents are incredibly conservative and Catholic, and so I would step out the door of my house and be assaulted with information that is completely opposite of everything they said. My parents sent us to this Catholic school and my mom thought that would be good for discipline, but it just radicalized us even more.”

…cocreating The Daily Show.
“What I’m surprised about is that cable news devolved in such a way that it just opened up the floodgates for the satirists. It used to be the media was the watchdogs; now satirists are the watchdogs of the watchdogs. I’m really surprised at how much watchdogging needs to take place.”

…the tea party.
“I don’t see it happening, but if a tea-bag landslide happens, I guess we have officially decided that the Constitution is unconstitutional. It’s hide your kids, hide your wife, hide your uterus, hide your tax dollars, hide everything because we’re going down the toilet.”

…the postmidterm landscape.
“People talk about this ‘enthusiasm gap’ and it’s kind of like, you know what, aside from Blanche Lincoln, there wasn’t a whole lot of Democrats challenged in their seats. Cheerleaders don’t go to an empty stadium; they go when there’s a game.”

…Angle versus Reid.
“Harry Reid couldn’t rally ball-gag salesmen to an S&M convention. He is his own personal enthusiasm gap. I predict that because Harry has been so vulnerable, if he ekes this out, we might get a new Senate leader anyway because we really need somebody who is going to be absolutely much more enthusiastic and powerful.”

…advice for Obama.
“After the midterms, do not hesitate from treating the crazies as though they are. They are not the party of Lincoln. Hopefully he has learned his lesson that they are not to be negotiated with. Basically they can’t say, ‘We hate that a president is black,’ and so they say he wasn’t born here, he’s a communist and a socialist and a Muslim and a fascist. It’s like, ‘Honey, get your hate straight.’”

…the Illinois Senate race.
“You have Kirk, whose record is kind of a cross between Christine O’Donnell and Richard Blumenthal. You have the weird lying on your résumé [and] weird lying about your naval experience against the guy who said, ‘Trust me, I’m a banker.’ You guys are screwed.”

…Mayor Emanuel.
“I’m not sure how Chicago’s going to feel about Mayor Fuck You.”

…Dumb-ocracy at Work!
“We’ll do the show for about 75 minutes and then we’ll do a Mystery Science Theater thing with the returns. We’ll watch the returns come in and be giving comments. Together as a group we’ll have equal parts tears, equal parts celebration and a lot of drinking.”

Winstead performs Tuesday 2, 7:30pm at Mayne Stage.

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