'Candidates' Spar Over SC Credentials

With Stephen Colbert kicking off his presidential campaign spoof in South Carolina yesterday, things got a little heated between the Comedy Central star and John Edwards, the state's other favorite-son contender. Colbert accused Edwards of having abandoned the Palmetto State at the age of 1; the Edwards folks shot back that their man learned to talk there, learned to walk there, and would “kick Stephen Colbert's New York City butt” there.

Then they indulged a little tongue-in-cheek rhetoric: "The truthiness is, as the candidate of Doritos, Colbert's hands are stained by corporate corruption and nacho cheese," the campaign said in a release. "John Edwards has never taken a dime from salty food lobbyists and America deserves a president who isn't in the pocket of the snack food special interests." (More John Edwards stories.)