The Washington Post has lost it over that Internet thingie

I was getting a modest chuckle out of this WaPo item,

APPROPRIATE

I ran a Google search to check out that guy from the party.

INAPPROPRIATE

I googled that hottie.

when I spotted an offer on the sidebar - washingtonpost.com Video Mash-Up:

Welcome to the washingtonpost.com Video Mash-Up, where our readers have the opportunity to create their own interview clips opposite Post political reporter Dana Milbank. We provide the questions, you provide the answers!

First, download the MPEG2 video clip you see playing at the top of this page, using the "Download Clip" button below. Using your own editing software, cut it up any way you like and splice in your own video, according to the rules below. Then attach your finished mash-up clip to an e-mail and send it to the address below.

In a few weeks washingtonpost.com will post all videos submitted that meet the requirements below and will give viewers the opportunity to comment and rate the videos. That's not a deadline, though -- we'll keep posting new videos if we keep getting them from you.

At first ole Dana sits there like a constipated pigeon reading some typical boring political interview questions, but later on he provides some mugging for the camera (e.g. yawn, open mouthed surprise, checking non-existent watch) and starts asking about things like "... the visit to the vampire bat preserve. How's the recovery going?" Uh oh! I wish I could have been a fly on the wall at the staff meeting where they thought this one up!

Now the WaPo clearly wants players to splice in their own personal clips since one of the rules is,

Submissions will be disqualified if they violate copyright or are determined to be offensive, threatening, defamatory or libelous. You must have full rights to any material you include in your submission.

but with comedy gold like this, who cares about their goofy contest when you can mash it up with clips of some bloviating airhead like Ned Lamont or Cindy Sheehan and slap it on YouTube or someplace similar? I hope Dana is prepared to see versions of this circulating up to and beyond the point he stops circulating.

Now if the New York Times would only emulate it and come out with the Maureen Dowd version!