On Comedy Central, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are mounting a Washington, D.C. rally that may end up being one of the biggest political stories of the season. Meanwhile, on HBO, Bill Maher is making news by resurrecting old Politically Incorrect clips featuring current Tea Party heroine Christine O'Donnell. What's going on here? Why are our politically interested comics making more sense, and news, than anyone else around right now?

Because, I fear, they may have the most credibility -- especially with younger viewers. And you know what? I'm not sure that's a bad thing.

On The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last week, the host of that program flipped the idea of the old "Silent Majority" on its edge, reclaiming it as a majority of quiet reason -- and calling on those people to join him, at the Washington Mall on Saturday, Oct. 30, for a RALLY TO RESTORE SANITY.

Why don't we hear, Stewart asked, from the 70-80 percent of people who aren't protesting at Tea Party rallies and other venues, drawn to TV lights like moths to flames?

"Most likely," he guesses, talking to his audience directly, "because you have ____ to do."

He called his rally, and his movement, "a clarion call for rationality." And beneath all the jokes, it was precisely that. As for actually bothering to attend a RALLY TO RESTORE SANITY, Stewart adds, "You may be asking yourself right now, sitting at home, 'But am I the right type of person to go to this rally?'

"The fact that you would even stop to ASK yourself that question," he adds...

...and the smile on his face proves his point before he even concludes his sentence.

Later, to make things even easier on possible visitors, Stewart offers examples of hand-painted signs that will be handed out at the rally. They, too, are funny, lonely voices of reason.

On the other hand, on the same night, Stewart's Daily Show Comedy Central spinoff series, The Colbert Report, threw down its own gauntlet, announcing a simultaneous rally -- same time, same place, different message.

Stephen Colbert's rallying cry, in the spirit of his over-the-top conservative commentator persona, was KEEP FEAR ALIVE. He announced it by draping himself in the image of the Lincoln Memorial, and by turning Stewart's "reasonable" rally into an instant classic star feud. Fred Allen, Jack Benny, take that.

What a brilliant idea. You can watch Stewart's entire piece setting up the rally HERE.

Then, to complete the twofer, Stephen Colbert's foamy counter-rally proposal can be seen HERE.

Interest in, and news about, this rally will only intensify in the coming weeks. And if you go, look for a bearded guy in a loud Hawaiian shirt... because I'll probably be there as well.

Seems like a reasonable thing to do...

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Meanwhile, tune to HBO tonight (Wednesday) at 11 ET for a rerun of last Friday's season premiere of Real Time with Bill Maher, in which the host unveiled an 11-year-old clip featuring Christine O'Donnell on his old ABC series, Politically Incorrect.

In it, the Tea Party candidate who upset the Senate race in Delaware by winning the GOP primary, admits to, among other things, having "dabbled in witchcraft."

After Maher unearthed and played the clip on Friday, O'Donnell, whose political platform includes being opposed to masturbation, cancelled scheduled weekend appearances with national TV shows, and said between now and election day she'd deal only with local media.

Perhaps we've misunderstood or misheard this particular politician. Perhaps what Christine O'Donnell is really against is not masturbating, but mass debating.

Regardless, Maher announced on last week's show that he had clips of nearly two dozen other Politically Incorrect appearances by O'Donnell, and that he likened his power position to a hostage situation. Come on his Real Time show, he told her, or he'd reach into his vault of old clips and "throw out one body a week."

Here's the clip:

Now THAT'S entertainment.

And, like what Stewart and Colbert are concocting for next month, it's also news, and may even have a measurable political impact.

So what's so funny about TV's court jesters?

Or, to put it another way: What have the REAL news commentators and analysts done for us lately?