Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom was describing his new book, "Citizenville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government," on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" on Thursday when the host, Stephen Colbert, asked him, 'What the (bleep) does any of that mean?"
Newsom had been talking about the "broadcast model of governing" and about how "big is getting small and small is getting big."
Colbert flipped through the book.
"Is there a bull (bleep) translator?" he said. "What are you talking about?"
Newsom tried again.
"I want to democratize voices," the former mayor of San Francisco said. "I want real citizen engagement. I want two-way conversations. I want citizenship to be redefined. I don't want people to do things to me, I want ... people to do things with me. So it's all about building partnership and building capacity, building community."
Colbert was unsatisfied.
"What do you mean? Again, every single one of these things could be carved on a stone and put in someone's garden as like, as like a mantra," Colbert said. "But I don't know what they mean. What do you mean?"
"Capacity," Newsom said. "I'm talking about community."
"Bandwith, you mean," Colbert said. "You mean governmental bandwith so that all of us can, can hyperlink our engagement to democracy. See, I can make this (bleep) up, too."
Newsom defended his point, and later in the interview he offered an impassioned defense of California.
"Can I say something?" Colbert said. "You're a very handsome man."
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