

There were all of those elderly veterans who “stormed” the National World War II Memorial. Cassesso and Le, who aren’t Jewish and don’t even watch “Homeland,” weren’t the only ordinary people this week leaping to shutdown stardom.

As if that weren’t enough ludicrous attention for Cassesso and his partner, MaiLien Le, the couple also participated in a two-part, 10-minute wedding ceremony Thursday night on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” featuring the actor Mandy Patinkin, who blessed them with a Hebrew prayer and, of course, pronounced the day and time when his CIA thriller “Homeland” airs on Showtime. In four days, the AARP legislative analyst’s note to The Post led to stories on news sites around the world, and to appearances on NBC and CNN. But Cassesso, a former staffer on two senatorial election campaigns, was pretty sure his message - a complaint that the federal government’s shutdown meant he couldn’t get married Saturday at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial - would easily tantalize. Mike Cassesso’s email Monday to a general inbox for the local staff of The Washington Post could have easily been ignored, buried beneath news releases sent daily to the paper’s reporters.
