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Stephen Colbert had a bit of trouble pretending to remain objective about his sister's run for South Carolina's 1st congressional district, which was vacated by now Sen. Tim Scott: Colbert touts his sister's House bid:

Colbert, in his trademark sarcastic style, discussed her race on "The Colbert Report," saying, "Holy cow, my sister is running for Congress."

He referred to her as "Lulu," saying that was her childhood nickname.

"No free air time Lulu. As a broadcast journalist I am obligated to maintain pure objectivity. It doesn't matter that my sister is intelligent, hardworking, compassionate and dedicated to the people of South Carolina," he said.

He added, "Besides, I'm not sure I can support her because she's running as a Democrat."

Sixteen Republicans are running for the seat, including former Gov. Mark Sanford and Teddy Turner, the son of business mogul Ted Turner.

"Republicans are all over this election like white on Republicans," Colbert noted.

"At this point I'm leaning toward actual candidate and former governor of the Appalachian Trail — Mark Sanford. I'm a family values conservative, and Mark, he just seems so steady." [...]

Colbert concluded his segment on his sister with this note: "Lulu is kind of tough. She could win this one and, if you do Lulu, I certainly hope you'll sit down with me for a 'Better Know a District,'" referring to a recurring segment from his TV show in which Colbert irreverently interviews House members.

"It will give you a chance to defend some shocking revelations I've found in your middle school diary."

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It seems Republicans are determined to continue to be completely tone deaf if they think trotting Allen West out there as someone they want representing their party on a national level is a good idea. This is the same man that bragged about torturing a policeman in Iraq, that has called the progressives in the Congress Communists, and who regularly shoots his mouth off being as mean and nasty towards those on the other side of the aisle as possible, where the list is too long to go into here.

The reason I say they're continuing to promote him on a national level is because Mitt Romney decided this is just the guy who should serve as the chair of his Black Leadership Council. Now they've got him out there, giving their weekly address, complaining about the defense cuts that their vice presidential nominee voted for. I can only assume they're hoping that no one ever watches this, or that their base who might be interested in it, is just too uninformed to realize that all West is serving up for them here is a big huge pile of steaming hypocrisy and misinformation about who has been obstructing and making sure nothing gets done or passed in the Congress if President Obama might gain from it, the consequences of their actions and how damaging they have been to the American public and our economy be damned.

West seems to be doing his best to give cover for their vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, who voted for those defense cuts and as David Plouffe pointed out last weekend, is now running from that vote as fast as he is his fictional marathon time.

And this is a member of Congress that just decided to go on vacation again while, as Think Progress noted, leaving key bills awaiting action. They've got more on other bills but here's the portion on the defense cuts:

5. Sequestration. A spokesman for Boehner said earlier this week that stopping budget cuts he voted for last August “topped our July agenda and remains atop our agenda for September.” While House Republicans have complained about the imminent spending reductions and passed a bill that would require President Obama to find offsets for spending cuts they don’t like, Republican Leader Canter could not name a single compromise he was willing to make to get a deal.

Go read the rest of the list if you want your stomach to churn. But never mind all that. It's all President Obama's fault that these cuts might be coming if you believe Allen West and not the fault of a House of Representatives that is completely unwilling to compromise, ever -- Weekly Republican Address: Rep. Allen West (R-FL) on President Obama’s Defense ‘Sequester’:

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Well we can thank Republican redistricting in Ohio for forcing the voters there to choose between Marcy Kaptur and Dennis Kucinich. Kaptur won the Ohio Democratic primary for the newly drawn district and will now face off against, get this... Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, otherwise known as "Joe the Plumber" in the general election.

Ed Schultz noted during MSNBC's interview with Kaptur that it was likely strong support from the unions there that pulled her through with her win in the primary race.

I hate the fact that the voters in Ohio ended up having to choose between the two of them even as unhappy as I was with Kaptur after her support of the Stupak amendment during the health care debate. Regardless of the issues I've had with either of them, they're minor when you look at both of their overall voting records and what it means for liberals and our issues to lose a Democratic seat in the House.

Kaptur was gracious during her interview here and said that she had not had a chance to speak to Kucinich yet after her win. I sadly can't say the same for Kucinich after reading this. As much as I've really liked Dennis and have been a supporter of his over the years, I've got to say, this is just graceless and looks like sour grapes. I'm really disappointed he decided to respond this way.

Kucinich: Kaptur Campaign 'Utterly Lacking In Integrity':

Dennis Kucinich had some not-so-nice words for his primary opponent following a tough loss in Ohio. Kucinich said Marcy Kaptur ran a campagin "that was utterly lacking in integrity" while also failing to congradulate her, tweets Chad Pergram.

The one upside to come out of Ohio is mean Jean Schmidt won't be returning since she lost to former Army Reserve Major Brad Wenstrup. The downside is he's further to the right than Schmidt should he win the general election.