Lauren Hutton, Walter Cronkite and Moby Offer Expert Analysis; A State of the Union Bash

N Y Daily News ^ | Jan. 22, 2004 | Lloyd Grove

[mountaineer]

How do people this stupid function in everyday life?

[mountaineer]

More post-SOTU "humor":

Talk about a House of cards. The best security in the country couldn't keep wiseacres out of President Bush's State of the Union Address Tuesday. Comic Dennis Miller was up in the visitors gallery shooting verbal spitballs at lawmakers waiting for Bush to arrive.

Miller - who, we hear, had had a private meeting with Vice President Cheney earlier - couldn't resist remarking on House Speaker Dennis Hastert's waistline. "Looks like Hastert had his stomach stapled," Miller joked.

When he spotted Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) scribbling on a pile of papers, Miller quipped, "He's probably writing to Penthouse Forum ... 'Jed, the stable boy, walked into the room...'"

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) drew a dart for her white-trimmed crimson dress.

"Who's Santa's little helper?" Miller wondered aloud.

But Miller, whose politics have veered significantly to the right, clammed up when Bush ascended to the dais. "He was incredibly respectful during the whole thing," says our spy. The neo-neo-conservative, who's due to interview Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on his new CNBC show next week, seemed "almost giddy" over Bush's tough talk about Iraq and the Patriot Act.

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) found Bush's speech laughable in its own right. One source spotted her snickering when Bush called for a curb on athletes' use of performance-enhancing drugs. "Now if he had mentioned testosterone, that would have been funny," Clinton told colleagues after the speech. She perfected her line later when she told reporters Bush's address was "partisanship on steroids." [That Hilly, what a laugh riot]

Around the country, other wags took the speech as a call to begin bombing - or, rather, getting bombed. Last year when Bush spoke to Congress, University of Pennsylvania law student Marc Melzer and management consultant Howard Deutsch created a Web site, drinkinggame.us, where they invited Americans to join them in raising a glass whenever Dubya mispronounced a word or warned against messin' with Texas.

Bush's four uses of "nukular" required participants to take four swigs of their cocktail. Bush's promise - made three times - that he would leave "no child behind" required three more swigs. Five mentions of "Saddam" also left revelers unconcerned about whether they had a prescription drug benefit.

"It was pretty crazy," Melzer, who registered over 231,000 hits on the site, told us. "People were true to the rules and drank a lot."

Daily News

[Arrowhead1952]

How do people this stupid function in everyday life?

"We all have 'beaten-wife syndrome,' where we've been lied to so often by Bill and Hillary Clintoon and the rest of the DUMBOCRATS," he told fellow diner Curtis Ellis of AP Radio.

[mountaineer]

He looks like the belligerent guy in the bar who tries to pick a fight with you.

I don't remember which lame Democrat candidate Moby supports. Gee, I hope it isn't the belligerent Howie Dean!

[mountaineer]

The event on Tuesday night was billed as a bipartisan viewing of PRESIDENT BUSH's State of the Union address.

But a quick scan of the room made it seem as if the EASTERN ESTABLISHMENT of political, business and media types had been told to meet at the closest treehouse. DAVID ROCKEFELLER; PETER G. PETERSON, chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations; NICHOLAS LEMANN, dean of Columbia's journalism school; DAVID DINKINS; TINA BROWN and HAROLD EVANS; even MOBY, the outspoken rock star, was there.


The host was The Atlantic Monthly, and the place was Madison Avenue at the swank Sony Club atop the Chippendale-style skyscraper designed by PHILIP JOHNSON.

The impression was confirmed by the electronic straw poll (as well as the groans during the president's televised speech) that 73 percent of the room "strongly disagreed" with Mr. Bush's idea of abstinence education to fight venereal disease.

"We see a common theme here, of godless New York," joked the evening's host, JAMES FALLOWS, a correspondent for The Atlantic. He then introduced WALTER CRONKITE.

"Never before in the history of this nation," said Mr. Cronkite, in his finest Men-Walk-on-Moon delivery, "has a president of the United States taken such a firm stand, as he did tonight, against - gonorrhea." Pause. Guffaws. Applause.

GEORGETTE MOSBACHER, a prominent Republican fund-raiser, leapt to President Bush's defense.

Social Security, education and other domestic issues weren't addressed by BILL CLINTON and the Democrats when they were in office, she said, despite the simultaneous advantages of low interest rates, low inflation and a budget surplus.

Indignant, LAUREN HUTTON cited the quadrupling of the national debt and Mr. Clinton's attempts to reduce it. "But I guess you can't read or something," said Ms. Hutton, glaring at Ms. Mosbacher. "Because I can, and I'm a model! "

Like a Christian surrounded by lions, Ms. Mosbacher seemed to radiate defiance. "You don't have to personally insult me to make a point," Ms. Mosbacher said. "I didn't insult you."

Ms. Hutton, taken aback, replied, "How did I personally insult you by saying I'm a model?"

Ms. Mosbacher, accepting some sort of Warner Brothers cartoon logic, said, "That's an insult to you!"

Then Ms. Mosbacher gathered her purse and a copy of The Atlantic Monthly, as if about to leave. But she stayed awhile longer, before leaving, untheatrically.


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/22/nyregion/22boldface.html

[Freemyland]

"Bush is responsible for a trillion-dollar deficit"

She can't even grasp something as basic as the difference between the national debt and the budget deficit.

[mountaineer]

Well, she's a model (at least, that's what she says).

[plain talk]

No, she may be partially correct on that one if you add up all the deficits (and projected ones) on his watch which I guess could approach that number - I'm not sure. Of course Ted Kennedy and his ilk had nothing to do the deficits. :-)

[CasearianDaoist]

Meet our ruling class. These are the people that lead public opinion for at least half the nation. They are going on their fourth or fifth generation on the New Deal Gravy train.

Two things that are really sad:

The "Sony building" Was once the world headquarters of AT&T

You once could get e very good view of the WTC from up there.

If we cannot oust this hideous parody of an aristocracy it is over.

[Arrowhead1952]

"Now if he had mentioned testosterone, that would have been funny," Clinton told colleagues after the speech. She perfected her line later when she told reporters Bush's address was "partisanship on steroids."

I didn't read this when I replied the first time. Why did old crusty say that? Is she using testosterone??? Makes me wonder..... HMMMMMMMM

[eyespysomething]

During Bill Clinton's SOTU's, we would tape a piece of paper with KNOWN LIAR written on it below it.

Our son knows him(Clinton) as the Lie Guy.

The difference? He was, Bush isn't.

[eyespysomething]

During Bill Clinton's SOTU's, we would tape a piece of paper with KNOWN LIAR written on it below the tv screen.

Our son knows him (Clinton) as the Lie Guy.

The difference? He was, Bush isn't.

Transference? Is that the word I'm looking for?

[eyespysomething]

oops.

[mountaineer]

The Dems are forced to lie about what Bush said, in order to call him a liar. For example, accusing him of saying Iraq was an imminent threat to the U.S., when that isn't at all what he said.

[uncbob]

The majestic-voiced Cronkite looked grave as he continued: "Never before has a President of the United States taken such a strong stand - as he did tonight - against gonorrhea!"

How is a that any different than a stand against the other STD-- AIDS

[mountaineer]

Excellent point.

[bray]

The Dems are forced to lie about what Bush said, in order to call him a liar.

Exactly, how do they "know" there were no WMD in Iraq? It would be simple for him to bury them or ship them to Syria and they "know" there were no WMD to make W a liar. These people must be beaten just like any other terrorist organization.

How come these people are for liberating oppressed people only when a Rat is President?? FAct is Republicans have freed nearly as many people as were murdered by Communism!

Pray for W and Our Brave Troops

[Mr. Jeeves]

"I guess you can't read, or something," Hutton jabbed. "Because I can - and I'm a model, for God's sake!"

Pretty arrogant for someone whose best role was Charlotte Taylor Wilson in "Zorro, the Gay Blade."

[Wallace T.]

The scary part is that this collection of louts represents a significant portion of the cultural and political leadership of our society. From senile old farts like Walter Cronkite to aging scalawags like Lauren Hutton to behind-the-scenes power brokers like David Rockefeller to sleazy ex-politicians like Bill Weld, these people are the enemies of God and country. One hopes Sony Entertainment thoroughly fumigated and sanitized the area after these luminaries went home in their limousines.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

What a list. How did Paris Hilton ever miss this event?