collided when newt gingrich and house republicans met another newt gingrich, the one played by chris farley raised hands triumphantly with darrell hammond who was in character that night. "snl" haslam pooned presidents, mayors, a speaker of the house or two, also laufnched rail lif senator, al franken. these days "snl" has more competition than ever when it comes to political satire. we thought we would commemorate the start of the new season by talking about why the show's political humor has been so enduring and where it is going from here. for that, i want to bring in david isikoff with "the new york times" who last month chronicle an oral history of "snl" auditions for the paper, back with us, lynn sweet for "the chicago sun times," also joining us is steve battaglia, the business editor with "tv guide magazine" and still with us, the very funny richard wolffe, on the receiving end of an "snl" parody himself. i can't tell who is who there. one is fred armisen, one is richard wolffe. richard wolffe has gotten the treatment. he can tell us a little bit about that. let's start by looking a