A nation - and Stephen Colbert's wrist - is healed

The New York Times is constantly amazed that Stephen Colbert manages to call a lot of attention to himself, but then they only continue to encourage him, this time with a story about his broken-wrist antics.

As we previously noted, Colbert muscled himself past the White House gates, and got Tony Snow and Nancy Pelosi to sign his wrist cast.

Since then, he pestered NBC's Brian Williams and CBS's Katie Couric into performing the same service. The Times suggested that ABC's Charlie Gibson is too much of a grumpy Gus to play along.

Gibson's reticence scarcely seems to have had an effect on bidding on the cast on eBay, which is now up to a staggering $15K with almost a week to go. Nor does the fact that Bill O'Reilly and Tim Russert's autographs also appear on the cast.

Proceeds go to The Yellow Ribbon Fund, a non-profit assisting injured servicemen returning from Iraq. Plus, since it's spent weeks stewing in its own juices inside that cast, the winner'll discover just what Colbert's wrist smells like. (Hint: a little like his ice cream.)