As the public view of the rightmost fringe of the Republican Party (aka the Tea Party) continues in a downward spiral, the measures they are taking to rehabilitate themselves get increasingly pathetic. Take, for instance, today’s press release announcing the third annual Tea Party Conference.

The big attraction this year, that they say “will mark a turning point in Tea Party history,” is declared in the their opening question and answer: “What do Jewish, Black, Environmentalist and LGBTQ leaders have in common? They are all coming to The 3rd Annual Tea Party Conference.”

Wow! That IS historic. A Tea Party event that aims to represent the diversity of America. And it’s uncharacteristically honest of them to admit that their past has been dominated by straight, white, Christians, although everyone else has known this all along.

Of course, it remains to be seen who actually shows up for this conference and whether their attempt at inclusion is successful. One impediment to that is that the conference is something of mysterious affair. Their press release notes that the event will be held at “an undisclosed location In Marietta, GA.” That might make it difficult for people to attend. Further limiting attendance is the fact that it is an “invitation-only” affair, so I hope you got your invitation.

The organizers are promoting the conference with a press release that proudly declares that Stephen Colbert is one of those lucky invitees. That bit of hype is emblazoned in the headline and repeated in the body of the release saying…

“In order to ensure a fair and balanced dialogue on diversity, an invitation to speak is also being extended to America’s most beloved ‘conservative’ comedian: Stephen Colbert.”

What they don’t explicitly note is that Colbert has not accepted the invitation, nor is there any evidence that he even received it. Consequently, he has not indicated that he has any intention of attending the event, or even knows that it exists. But that didn’t stop the Tea Partiers from exploiting his name for its publicity value.

And in that same spirit of promotional quackery, I’d like to announce that Colbert, along with Michelle Obama and Batman, have been invited to my house for dinner to endorse my ebook “Fox Nation vs. Reality.” It’s a compendium of more than 50 examples of outright lies published on the Fox News community website. Like the Tea Party event, this dinner is invitation-only and will be held at an undisclosed location. That reminds me – I need to invite Dick Cheney.