Tip of the Hat: Governor Rick Scott makes headlines on The Colbert Report

Gov. Rick Scott's self-congratulatory little letter to Florida newspaper editors has grabbed some national network attention, but probably not the kind the governor would write home about.

On "The Colbert Report" Monday night, comic anchorman Steven Colbert did a spoof of Scott's efforts to raise his low poll numbers by posting on his Web site a model letter for supporters to sign and send to their local editors, effusively praising the governor.

See Also: Gov. Scott wants you to write him a recommendation

The bit opened by citing a Quinnipiac University Poll that said only 29 percent of Floridians approved of Scott's job performance.

"He'd probably be doing better if he wasn't trying to kill Harry Potter," Colbert theorized, flashing a picture of Voldemort from the Potter movies on screen next to Scott's head shot.

"It was a campaign promise, what can he do?"

Colbert's late-night comedy act is sort of a Bill O'Reilly parody, portraying an over-the-top self-absorbed and clueless conservative commentator. So he read the prototype letter that Scott recently offered on his Web site for supporters to sign and send, then proposed his own little missive with little blanks for viewers to fill in their own adjectives, verbs and nouns to describe Scott.

"Now, those anti-government Tea Partiers who elected Rick Scott can have the government write their letters for them," Colbert mocked. "Folks, I want to praise Rick Scott's praise of Rick Scott."

Watch the video clip below:

Bill Cotterell, Tallahassee Democrat