Jon Stewart Praises Republican for Sandy Response as ‘Daily Show’ Returns

After a brief hiatus because of the superstorm that ripped through the East Coast this week, Jon Stewart returned to the airwaves Wednesday night and lavished praise on the government for its response to the disaster.

Regarding New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the Comedy Central funnyman said he “kicked ass at his job, and did it in two languages!”

But “The Daily Show” host had more complimentary things to say about New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a vast change of pace for a man who is usually in the cross hairs of Stewart’s comedic wrath. Stewart said effusively that the Republican “kicked crazy ass during the storm!”

He also applauded Christie for an appearance on Fox News in which the governor responded to Steve Doocy’s question about whether Mitt Romney was going to tour damage in his state by saying if Doocy thought he cared about presidential politics at that moment then “you don’t know me.”

Still, that doesn’t mean Stewart was going to let Christie, a staunch backer of Mitt Romney who has expressed verbal support of President Obama’s handling of the emergency, completely off the hook. This was, after all, the same guy who said just 12 days ago that the president was like someone fumbling around a dark room, “clutching for the light switch of leadership.”

Noting that Christie said after the storm that the president’s response was “outstanding” and that he deserved “great credit,” Stewart said, “Yeah, I guess he found that fucking light switch, huh?”