Two nights ago, in his The Word segment, Steven Colbert actually used his show to do some investigative work into the money-in-politics connections that might have motivated to turn Rep. Luis Gutierrez’ position on pay-day loans from oppose to support slight (read: non-existent) restrictions. Watch it:

Of course, I can’t help but remind readers that the Center for Responsive Politics recently opened up their data–20 years worth–to be mashed, mixed, and visualized. Already we are seeing visualization pop up. Check out these from the University of Michigan.

Also, Sunlight’s Chief Evangelist Greg Elin penned a guest column over at ProgrammableWeb about the release of this mountain of data. It’s well worth the read.