Stephen Colbert declared himself a North Carolina native this week during a segment on "The Colbert Report" in which he discussed his sister, Elizabeth Colbert Busch, losing a congressional election in his home state of South Carolina to former disgraced South Carolina governor Mark Sanford.

The angry Colbert said he felt betrayed by his home state and would turn his back on it. "From now on," he said. "And I never thought I'd say this, I am from North Carolina. No, I have to -- I have to! I'm a Tar Heel now! Whatever the f*#$ that means."

Colbert then went on to profess his love for the state bird, the cardinal (after consulting an Almanac to get the bird's name right). "That's a stupid bird," he said. "But it's mine now."

Colbert also mentioned the state dog (the Plot Hound) before slamming North Carolina 'cue as a "sauceless, vinegar-based meat product that they call barbecue." Colbert then took a bite of some eastern N.C. barbecue and gagged.

We know Colbert is a great, great actor because there's no way he prefers that mustardy South Carolina mess to our delicious pig. Smithfield Chicken N' Bar-B-Q, a local barbecue and fried chicken chain, posted an open letter to Colbert on their website last night, challenging his barbecue tastes and offering to send him some of their barbecue and slaw in an effort to set his mind -- and taste buds -- right.

You can watch the full Colbert segment here.

Last night's "Saturday Night Live" opened with a skit of South Carolina's Governor Mark Sanford, Nevada Senator John Ensign, and North Carolina's former senator John Edwards holding a press conference criticizing the media for their coverage of the Tiger Woods scandal.

But instead of taking the media to task for being too hard on their fellow philanderer, the men complain that Tiger's getting all the coverage these days.

SNL had Will Forte playing Edwards, Jason Sudeikis playing Sanford, and Bill Hader playing Ensign.

Forte as Edwards mostly reminded the one reporter who bothered to attend the press conference that he (allegedly) has a child with his former mistress. As Ensign and Sanford argue about why their affairs deserve more media coverage, Edwards repeatedly exclaims, "I had a love child!"

It has a familiar ring to it, no?

Our colleagues at The State report on the latest turn of the screw in the saga of Gov. Mark Sanford. The South Carolina Ethics Commission has charged Sanford with 37 counts of breaking ethics laws. Many involve air travel - either Sanford flying on expensive commercial flights on the taxpayer dime, or using state aircraft for personal travel.  

Staff writer Martha Quillin's story about the pronunciation of Lejeune reminds me of the peculiarities of place name pronunciation. Even if the name of the family was pronounced one way, the name of the Marine base has come to be pronounced another way.

Though hypocrisy knows no party boundaries, S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford's indiscretion and overall weirdness put a
bulls-eye on the back of the GOP, at least when it comes to editorial cartooning. Here's a roundup of a few McClatchy cartoons, including one by The N&O's Dwane Powell, on the subject.

Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina doesn't need to answer to me. I didn't have the chance to vote for or against him. And his politics are his politics...very conservative, etc. Again, to each his own.

But one of the more painful moments to me in the unfolding of the Sanford affair story was hearing a couple of television commentators read aloud some e-mails Sanford had sent to his woman friend in Argentina. Music played in the background as the aforementioned TV talk types emphasized the phrases of their choice. The governor was being humiliated...in his own words. 

The e-mail world has more potholes in it, metaphorically speaking, than Raleigh's Wade Avenue. When folks started using it in offices, more than one boss accidentally received an e-mail meant for a co-worker. A friend of mine mistakenly sent one to an editor here one time, and while it wasn't vicious or profane or anything, it was critical. He realized the minute he hit the button what he had done. So he e-mailed me: "Oh, no! Oh, oh, no! I'm doomed!" The editor, a fellow of even temperment, just let it pass as if nothing had happened. 

As someone who writes opinion pieces, I sometimes get e-mails that are pretty tough, calling me names and the like. I'm constantly amazed at what people will say about you in an e-mail that they would never say to your face. It's like a whole world of communication with no rules or guidelines of behavior. 

As for Sanford, well, it was hard to see, because he's not the only person who wrote a love note to somebody, figuring it was between the two of them and not between the two of them and a few hundred million more people.  

Everyone's talking today about the antics of South Carolina's rogue governor Mark Sanford, who disappeared for several days and at one point was reported to be off hiking the Appalachian Trail. Turns out he was actually "crying in Argentina" with his mistress.

The State newspaper in Columbia has compiled some clips of news and comedy shows skewering the missing governor, the funniest being from Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report."

"The Daily Show" calls one of their segments "Fled . . .