When scandal breaks in Washington D.C., the Capitol Steps step up their non-partisan ribbing with their musical brand of political satire.

Five members of the Capitol Steps musical-comedy troupe, made up of mostly former congressional aides, will bring a dose of that mocking to Stephens Auditorium tonight at 7:30.

Elaina Newport, producer of the Capitol Steps, co-founded the group along with director Bill Strauss at an office Christmas party in December 1981, when both were working on Capitol Hill.

“We just made fun of our bosses and hoped that we didn’t get fired,” Newport said.

The group works hard to maintain its bipartisan stance.

“We really like to be equal-opportunity offenders,” she explained.

It isn’t always easy to stay in the middle though, Newport admits.

“It’s hard when there’s no funny person of the other party in the news,” she said. “If the Republicans aren’t making headlines, for example, because the Democrats are in the White House, it’s hard to be bipartisan because there’s nothing to make fun of.”

For the first eight years, the Republicans were the butt of the Capitol Steps’ comedy attack because they were the only ones making headlines, she said.

In recent years the Democrats and especially the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky sex scandal have provided the Steps with a wealth of material.

“There were so many angles to it that you could actually write a skit or a song about every aspect of it. It was huge, but in another sense, it was so ridiculous that it was almost hard to lampoon because it was so silly to begin with,” she said. “Comedy depends on exaggeration, and you can’t exaggerate some of that stuff. It was ridiculous enough.”

The group was concerned that the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal would be too difficult to top.

“The bar was getting higher and the next scandal, in order to actually capture people’s attention, there would have to be five sheep or something, because we couldn’t imagine that if somebody got caught with just one woman anybody would even care anymore,” she said.

But on the political scene, targets are easy to come by.

“Eight years ago we were actually upset about losing Dan Quayle and now in hindsight, Dan Quayle had nothing on Bill Clinton,” she said. “We’re a little bit like car repossessors or funeral directors or some of those professions that prey on the misfortunes of others. So we’ll always be around.”

In November, the group will be quietly rooting for George W. Bush from a comedic standpoint.

“I think George W. is a little funnier than Al Gore,” Newport said. “I think he’s got tremendous potential. He’s got a little of the Dan Quayle potential, he sounds like he had a slightly wild past which could come back and haunt him after he gets elected.”

“That assumes that Al Gore won’t do something really stupid between now and the election day, which would mean that we prefer him,” Newport added.

But the Capitol Steps don’t limit themselves to only making light of politics.

“Anything that’s in the headlines will do,” Newport said.

Steffen Schmidt, better known as Doctor Politics to WOI-AM listeners, will warm-up the crowd at 7 p.m. in the Celebrity Cafe, on the ground floor of Stephens.

“I’m going to talk about the more amusing aspects of presidential elections, and certainly this year we have a couple of candidates who are pretty funny in many ways,” said Schmidt, professor of political science,. “They both are trying so hard to be president; they both have these personalities that have certain things about them that are awkward.”

Schmidt said he believes it is necessary to make light of politics to keep everything in perspective.

“I think you need to make light of politics or else you go crazy,” he said. “One of the great things about this country is that we’re not only allowed to, but in some ways, we are actually encouraged to make fun of our politicians, and that’s what I plan to do.”

A fan of the Capitol Steps, Schmidt believes they help to lighten a stiff political scene.

“They make it possible for us to not be so grim about politics,” he said.