Saturday Night Live chief Lorne Michaels reportedly requested another skit featuring Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to open the program this week.

Not bad for veteran SNL writer Jim Downey, who was fired by NBC a decade ago for going after politicians in power on the show’s “Weekend Update.”

Not only did Downey’s opener last Saturday make SNL buzzed-about again, but Hillary Clinton cited the skit during this week’s Democratic debate.

“In the last several debates, I seem to get the first question all the time,” the New York Senator stated. “I don’t mind. I’ll be happy to field it. I just find it curious if anybody saw Saturday Night Live … maybe we should ask Barack if he’s comfortable and needs another pillow.”

Here’s the Saturday Night Live skit from last week’s show (which also contained a classic interview with the actual Mike Huckabee)…

The show’s most political and veteran writer, Downey was fired along with Norm MacDonald by then-NBC West Coast head Don Ohlmeyer in 1998.

Downey returned to SNL in 2000 (after Ohlmeyer left NBC) in time to skewer both George W. Bush and Al Gore. Unless NBC gets cold feet again, he should be plenty busy this campaign season now that SNL is back from the strike.

Last week’s debate starred SNL’s Fred Armisen as Barack Obama and Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton and also ripped the media’s adoration for the former.

This wasn’t the first time Hillary’s 2008 bid has been lampooned by SNL.

Obama himself made a cameo on the show last fall, appearing at a Halloween party hosted by Bill (Darrell Hammond) and Mrs. Clinton (Poehler)…