The facts aren’t on Sarah Palin’s side, Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert declared Thursday night, before passing verdict on Palin’s new book, Going Rogue: It’s a “steaming pile of shit.”

“While I was hollowing her book out to hide my waffles, I had a chance to read almost the entire cover,” Colbert told his audience. “And I was struck by the subtitle: ‘An American Life.’ And that is so fitting, because in her 413-page autobiography, just like America, nothing is ever Sarah Palin’s fault.

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“The shopping sprees, that was all the idea of some bad people on McCain’s staff,” Colbert continued, while the words on screen read “The devil made her wear Prada.”

“And the Katie Couric interview?” Colbert asked. “Katie’s entirely to blame.” (“For turning on the camera,” the screen read.)

“And it’s certainly not her fault that much of the book isn’t ‘accurate,'” Colbert said, making quotation marks with his fingers. “That’s the fault of the Associated Press. As Palin explained on her Facebook page, ‘The AP somehow nabbed a copy of the book before it was released. We’ve heard 11 writers are engaged in this opposition research, er, ‘fact checking’ research!’

“Where Palin’s concerned, fact-checking and opposition research are the same thing. Because she knows the facts are out to get her. And the fact that this book is a steaming pile of shit? Also not her fault,” Colbert said to laughter and applause.

This video is from Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, broadcast Nov. 18, 2009.