It's never a good sign for a politician to be ridiculed by late night TV comics. That fate befell Rep. Tom Kean Jr. Friday night on Bill Maher's HBO show, Real Time.

"Are you OK Tom? Are you curled up in a ball?"

So asked Maher, a Bergen County native, while an unflattering photo of the absent congressman was displayed behind him.

What was even worse for Kean was the company he kept.

Maher does a commentary at the end of every show and Friday night's edition was about candidates doing - and saying - really bizarre things.

First up was Graham Platner, the Democratic Senate candidate in Maine who first gained "fame" for getting a Nazi-related tattoo. Since then, he has been criticized for sexting and allegedly assaulting women.

Then there was Maureen Galindo, a Texas congressional candidate who advocated putting American Zionists in concentration camps. She lost.

And finally, Maher spoke of Victor Marx, a Colorado gubernatorial candidate who claims to have performed many exorcisms. (Maybe he should exorcise his name, given the fact Marx does not seem the best name for an American politician.)

It was, of course, a bit strange for Kean to be included with all these oddballs.

However, it showed that Kean's more than three month absence from Washington - and his refusal to say precisely why - is rocketing across the national political spectrum. And that's not a good thing.

The underlying theme of Maher's commentary, however, was not all that negative.

His point was that voters are very forgiving these days. Given the fact many voters have skeletons of their own, they are more apt to overlook the foibles of others.

As for Kean in CD-7, that's an open question.