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My friend Eric Rawlins, quoted here with his permission:

Although I’m not surprised that the right would claim it was “not funny” — they can hardly argue with Colbert’s suggestions on their merit — whether what he did was funny strikes me as completely irrelevant. It’s as if Welch’s “have you no shame” speech had been followed by an extensive media debate on whether his tie was too loud.

Update: Jon Bell’s screen shots of the crowd reaction.

Email I sent to Richard Cohen of the Washington Post just now:

Sorry, man, but you’re full of shit on this one.

The only other time we know of when Bush had a chance to hear dissenting views was when he invited the former secretaries of state etc. for a visit. He gave ’em the bum’s rush.

You say Colbert is “representative of what too often passes for political courage, not to mention wit, in this country.” I’d say not often enough.

What have you done lately to try to get us out of the mess we’re in thanks to Bush and the fools who let him come to power?

James Poniewozik in Time:

Colbert wasn’t playing to the room, I suspect, but to the wide audience of people who would later watch on the Internet. If anything, he was playing against the room – part of the frisson of his performance was the discomfort he generated in the audience, akin to the cringe humor of The Ali G Show. (Cringe humor, too, is something probably lost on much of the Washington crowd at the dinner, as their pop-culture tastes tend to be on the square side.) To the audience that would watch Colbert on Comedy Central, the pained, uncomfortable, perhaps-a-little-scared-to-laugh reaction shots were not signs of failure. They were the money shots. They were the whole point.

First of all, Daily Kos has a full transcript of the Stephen Colbert speech.
Dan Froomkin, in the Washington Post, says this:

Now the mainstream media is back with its second reaction: Colbert just wasn’t funny.

Yes, it turns out Colbert has brought the White House and its press corps together at long last, creating a sense of solidarity rooted in something they have in common: Neither of them like being criticized.

And this:

Once upon a time, I imagine, there was great value in throwing a party where journalists and politicians could mingle and shmooze and celebrate the things they have in common.

And indeed, if the press and this particular White House had an even moderately functional professional relationship, then a chance to build personal relationships would be a nice bonus.

But it’s not a functional professional relationship. From the president down to the freshest press office intern, this White House seems to delight in not answering even our most basic questions.

So the last thing in the world we need is a big party where the only appropriate mode of communication is sucking up.

Media Matters takes on the disgusting performance by Chris Matthews (aka “Tweety”) on Hardball:

Matthews praised Bush, Wallace, Snow, while he and Time‘s Allen panned Colbert

[…]

Later in the show, Matthews contrasted Colbert’s performance with Bush’s “unbelievable self-deprecating” comedy routine. When Allen asserted that Colbert, who skewered Bush and the White House press corps, “went over about as well as David Letterman at the Oscars,” Matthews asked: “Why do you think he was so bad?” Responding to Allen’s claim that “the standard at these dinners is singe, not burn,” Matthews assented: “The president’s our head of state, not just a politician.”

That Media Matters post has video of the Matthews segment. Vile.