Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen’s column about Stephen Colbert’s performance is the complaint of someone who’s a little uncomfortable with the heat.

Was Colbert unfunny and rude? Well that’s satire, not comedy. I’ll grant that satire is widely regarded as rude, must obviously by those being satirized ? Cohen included, in this case.

As to the risk of speaking truth to power, Cohen might ask Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson about the consequences of crossing this administration. He might also ask whether it was fear or something baser that has made the news media this administration?s lap dog as Bush lied us into war.

Besides, saying the emperor has no clothes is a form of speaking truth to power. As polls show, most Americans are seeing what Colbert said: This emperor has no clothes, and the truth — on the failure in Iraq, on fiscal responsibility, on health care, on the environment, etc. — is finally being laid bare. What should upset Cohen is that we’ve been reduced to hearing it in satire, rather than in news reports, over the past six years.

But in the end, Cohen’s right. What Colbert said isn’t funny. It’s sad but true.