Political talk that takes its cue from late-night TV

Mr. Egg Nog faced the camera and threw America a smile, sharing the small screen with a woman playing “White Christmas” on a grand piano.

It was warm, it was cozy, it was intimate.

“What a first show we have,” said the host of “After Hours with Cal Thomas” on the Fox News Channel, “with guests Michael Feinstein and Mr. Vice President, Dick Cheney!”

Cal who? Host of what? On what? Yes, that’s right. Showing their sense of humor, and getting in touch with their inner Hyohhhhhh!, Fox’s “fair and balanced” cut-ups now have themselves a late night show on Saturdays. Well, not quite late night out here where it airs at 8 p.m., three hours earlier than in the East. And no one’s playing stump the band, either.

But it does feel late night, with “staff pianist” Lauren Green -- who spends her mornings as a Fox News anchor -- moonlighting on those tinkly ivories and Thomas -- the conservative syndicated columnist whose favorite targets include the Liberal Media -- as twinkly as Christmas lights in his new role as impresario of shmooze.

“If you prefer conversation to confrontation and something new and different to the same old-same old,” he said at the top of last week’s premiere, “this is your kind of show.”

Was his reference to “confrontation” a tiny slam of Fox’s tumultuous Bill O’Reilly and bickering “Hannity & Colmes,” or more likely meant for the screaming barbarians of left and right on CNN’s “Crossfire?”

Whatever the case, there’s something symbolic about Fox’s new toastier, fuzzier after-hours Cal. Among the more exotic political phenomena of this age are Leno, Letterman and other late-nighters becoming rites of passage for politicians on the stump, from blues man Bill Clinton selling himself to young urban blacks by blowing his sax on “The Arsenio Hall Show” some years ago to George Bush and Al Gore sparring in 2000 with Letterman, who self-mockingly boasted: “The road to the White House runs through me.”

It’s as if Americans were expected to measure their national leaders by their quips instead of their policies, the usual routine being for a candidate to get drilled repeatedly in the host’s monologue, then arrive in person for a whimsical rapprochement.

Thomas is not on that laugh track. And somehow, you can’t envision a comedy monologue in his future, although he did open his first show by reciting one of his columns that at least one viewer (blush) found pretty funny. The best he could do on Saturday was a condemnation of people “stripping away ... America’s heritage” by substituting “happy holidays” for “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Hanukkah.”

Well, if you have to be mad at something ....

What roads lead through Thomas remain to be seen as he approaches his second Saturday with guest E. Harold Ford Jr., the Tennessee congressman who recently lost his bid to become House Democratic leader. Thomas’ hybrid new show does straddle two universes. When he promises viewers politics, opinion and, yes, “even some entertainment,” it’s not CBS or NBC that’s paying him to say it, but the nation’s most popular cable news channel. The ivories and news sharing a set? You half expected Thomas to sing Christmas carols and invite the Fox news staff in to bob for apples.

Not that there has ever been much of a line separating politics from show biz.

Just as news and entertainment are moving ever closer, politics and entertainment offer careers that are nearly interchangeable. Think anti-Vietnam War crusaders on “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” in the 1960s. Think Ronald Reagan as California governor and president. Think Charlton Heston as drum major for the NRA. Think Mr. Republican Arnie Schwarzenegger. Think Tennessee Republican Fred Thompson trading his Senate seat recently for a regular gig on NBC’s “Law & Order.”

And don’t forget this week’s tailored-for-TV event staged by Artists United to Win Without War, with Martin Sheen, David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Laurence Fishburne, Mike Farrell and other show biz figures coming forward to denounce Bush’s saber-rattling aimed at Iraq.

So when soon-to-be-Senate-Minority-Leader-again Tom Daschle recently blasted conservative radio talker Rush Limbaugh and “Limbaugh wannabes” for wisecracks that blurred “entertainment and politics,” the South Dakota Democrat was ignoring a long tradition of his own party. By the way, does anyone recall Daschle or any other Democrat protesting when Letterman called Bush a “boob” during the 2000 presidential campaign?

Not a peep.

And so it was that Thomas sat down with Cheney at “his place” for what he termed a “friendly conversation.” Very, very friendly, with the vice president settling back in his chair like Santa Claus and an adoring Thomas mentally sitting on his lap while lobbing him softballs.

After that, it was time for performer Feinstein to “do what he so often does after hours,” Thomas announced, “sing us a song.” So there it was, the Fox News Channel -- “fair and balanced” and, thanks to Feinstein’s singing, for once not off-key.

Happy holidays, Cal.

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Howard Rosenberg’s column appears Mondays and Fridays. He can be contacted at howard.rosenberg@latimes.com

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On TV

“After Hours With Cal Thomas” airs at 8-8:30 p.m. Saturdays on Fox News Channel. Saturday night’s guest is Congressman E. Harold Ford Jr.