Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert will have a battle of the apolitical marches on the National Mall.

Comedy Central

• 5 highlights from the House's first hearing into the IRS scandal
• Why the GOP dropped its boycott of Obama's Labor and EPA picks
• Will the GOP's attempt to tie the IRS scandal to ObamaCare backfire?

he video: After weeks of speculation, Comedy Central anchors Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert announced Thursday that they will follow in the footsteps of Glenn Beck and each host a Washington D.C. rally and march. Stewart will preside over a "Rally to Restore Sanity" while Colbert will lead a "rival" event, "The March to Keep Fear Alive." Both will take place Oct. 30 on the National Mall, and — like Beck's rally — will be defiantly apolitical. We're going to send a "message to our leaders and national media," Stewart told viewers: "We are here... we're only here though until 6, because we have a sitter."
The reaction: It's bold of Stewart and Colbert to take on Tea Partiers, says David Dayen at FireDogLake. "I don't know that they'll succeed." Will people really travel across the country just to have a few laughs? Well I'll be there, says Jay Bookman at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. And any "American patriot deeply concerned about the direction of this country" should join me. Watch Stewart announce his rally: