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In one exchange about wind power, Stephen Colbert blew on Chellie Pingree’s hand and asked, “is this generating some electricity?”

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Chellie Pingree wondered “Is that me?” with all the hair spray and makeup during her appearance on Comedy Central with Stephen Colbert.

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Colbert pretends to doze off while talking about the books on knitting authored by Maine's 1st District representative.

enlarge Photos courtesy Comedy Central

Stephen Colbert introduced his segment with Maine's Chellie Pingree wearing fishing gear with a plate of fish sticks.

Some would say Chellie Pingree held her own.

Pingree says she lucked out.

The bottom line is that the representative from Maine's 1st Congressional District appeared on the political comedy show "The Colbert Report" this week and didn't say anything embarrassing, degrading or generally offensive during her five-minute segment.

"The whole time he was interviewing me, about two hours, I thought he was going to do something to try to embarrass me, and there are some things I'm glad they didn't put on TV," Pingree said Tuesday. "I have to say he treated me quite gently. I think I lucked out."

Pingree said that during the interview, Stephen Colbert tried to egg her on with jokes about rural Maine, asserting that most Mainers have no electricity and marry their cousins. But none of that got on the air.

Neither did a thumb-wrestling match between Pingree and Colbert, or the pair's Moxie chugging contest. Colbert made painful grimaces after each sip of Maine's official soft drink, while Pingree drank the whole can.

"I wish they had put that on," she said.

In the portion of the segment that did appear, Colbert told Pingree he had heard that Portland has one of the highest concentrations of women living together. Pingree answered by talking about what a tolerant state Maine is. Colbert said he didn't want an explanation, he just wanted to hold the image in his mind. Pingree continued calmly.

At one point, Colbert held up knitting books that Pingree has authored, and pretended to fall asleep.

When Colbert asserted that Maine's gay-marriage law would lead to marriage between men and lobsters, Pingree told him "it's not going to happen." Pingree said she was worried during that interchange that Colbert would try to get her to say something at least slightly offensive about same-sex marriage, but it didn't happen.

Pingree even managed to remain composed when Colbert started blowing on her hand after an argument about whether wind power could ever run out.

"This is wind power, is it generating some electricity?" Colbert asked Pingree, with a sly smile on his face.

Pingree didn't flinch, saying, "Do you ever run out of that?"

On Tuesday, she admitted that keeping her composure during the hand-blowing incident was "a little tough."

Pingree's segment is part of a series on Colbert's show on Comedy Central called "Better Know a District." The goal is to profile every congressional district. It was taped on July 20 in New York City. The segment aired at 11:30 p.m. Monday and 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. It can also be seen on Colbert's Web site: www.colbertnation.com.

Pingree said she agreed to go on the program because she wanted to help show people that members of Congress can be accessible and have a sense of humor. She also noted that many young people know more about politics from shows like Colbert's than from TV network news.

Even though Pingree liked the way her segment came out, she didn't quite recognize herself.

"The hardest thing was that they used so much hair spray and makeup, so when I saw it I said, 'Is that me?' "

Staff Writer Ray Routhier can be contacted at 791-6454 or at: rrouthier@pressherald.com