By John E. Mulligan
Journal Washington Bureau

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse got his 15 minutes of stardom this week. Well, more like one minute. But since he merited a spoof from Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, it counts as high-octane stardom, however brief.

Stewart's topic was Sen. Jim Bunning's one-man blocking maneuver on a bill intended to boost the economy by extending unemployment benefits, among other means. The Kentuckian mounted the delaying tactics on grounds that the price of the bill would be added to the national debt, rather than paid for through spending cuts elsewhere in the federal budget. Fellow Republicans joined Democrats in persuading Bunning to let the bill get to a vote, whereupon it passed by a big bipartisan majority.

Stewart's segment, appearing while the bill was still on hold, played the story the Daily Show way -- for barbed laughs at Bunning's expense. But Stewart digressed briefly to highlight a Senate speech by Rhode Island Democrat Whitehouse, as he told one of his stories about constituents in distress -- in this case, an unemployed woman from North Providence.

Whitehouse comes on screen at 3:16.