Spring Hill's Presidential Candidate Hits Comedy Central Tonight

Brian Moore, the presidential candidate from Spring Hill out to prove that socialism isn't a dirty word, is slated today to face what could prove to be his toughest interviewer yet: Comedy's Central's Stephen Colbert.

Moore will appear on The Colbert Report tonight to talk about his candidacy at the top of the Socialist Party ticket. The show airs at 11:30 p.m. and the episode will air again Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 and 7:30 p.m.

Colbert satirizes the talking heads of the cable news networks, with a shtick that takes conservatism to outrageous extremes. The result: Guests with a liberal slant get skewered.

Moore said he's preparing to be mocked.

"But I feel comfortable with that, because we're used to it," a laughing Moore said Monday morning before he left his home on Hunter's Lake, bound for Tampa International Airport. He caught a 5 p.m. flight to New York City, where the show is taped. "I think I can turn the tables and mock capitalism."

Actually, capitalism's apparent failing have caused the word "socialism" to turn up in lots of the nation's dialogue - and presidential campaign rhetoric - in recent weeks and likely prompted Moore's invitation to one of the highest-rated shows on cable. The media is more interested in the Socialist Party and is dialing Moore's number more often, giving the tiny minor party the kind of publicity it couldn't hope to pay for.

Many have used the term "socialism" to describe the government bailout of the financial industry, and that will be an easy mark during his appearance, Moore said.

Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain started using the word to describe the tax policies of Democratic opponent Sen. Barack Obama. Obama didn't help matters when he said during a debate the nation needs to "spread the wealth around."

Socialism is indeed about sharing wealth, Moore said, but contends that the two candidates are smearing socialism and "misleading the public" by co-opting the term for their own "fear-mongering" political purposes.

The socialist platform, in essence, would have ownership and control of corporations transfer to the workers, eliminating the few "robber barons" that make millions on the backs of many, Moore said. The party opposed the financial plan because essentially, he said, "it's putting the fox in the henhouse." Socialists would do away with the faulty financial institutions altogether, Moore said.

Moore has been a guest on national radio programs and has been featured in pieces in The Nation, The New Republic and National Journal. He recently took questions from Al Jazeera, the Arabic news network. Moore says that appearance reached more than 100 million viewers worldwide.

Moore has appeared three times - and as recently as last week - on Your World, the Fox News business show hosted by Neil Cavuto. Moore said a Colbert Report producer told him that Colbert saw the appearance and wanted to have Moore on his show.

A Comedy Central spokeswoman said the network would not comment on what motivates requests for guests.

Moore, a 64-year-old former health care executive recruiter, is relatively well-known in Hernando County as founder and chairman of the Nature Coast Coalition for Peace and Justice. The group organizes the anti-war rallies at some of the county's busiest intersections. He's also made several bids for public office. He earned the Socialist Party USA's nomination at its national convention in St. Louis last October, beating out four other hopefuls.

Since then, he's worked with the party to get on ballots in as many states as possible. So far, he's made it onto just eight: Florida, Wisconsin, Ohio, New Jersey, Colorado, Vermont and Iowa.

He acknowledged that there's no way he can be president unless something "cataclysmic" happens and the socialists suddenly get a lot more converts. His candidacy, Moore said, is more about educating the public about the party's roots as the source of child labor laws, Social Security and the 40-hour work week.

It's the case he'll try to make in the court of Colbert: "We're now coming into our own again."

If you watch

Brian Moore, a Spring Hill resident and the Socialist Party's presidential candidate, will appear on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report at 11:30 p.m. tonight. The episode re-airs Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 and 7:30 p.m.