Posted on 05/02/2005 6:00:13 AM PDT by fight_truth_decay
Who knew? First lady Laura Bush took over the podium from her husband at Saturday night's annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner and knocked 'em dead, keeping Washington's most powerful politicos in stitches as she worked the ballroom like a seasoned stand-up comic.
CUT
Although Washington's movers and shakers laughed at Mrs. Bush's performance, some in the press woke up with a Sunday morning hangover and began to criticize her monologue as immodest at best and downright bawdy at worst.
"Laura Bush cracks risque jokes at the White House Correspondents' dinner," sniffed Agence France-Presse. CNN reporter Elaine Quijano, who attended the dinner, also apparently had her sensibilities scarred by some of the first lady's quips.
"In some respects, I think for some folks it was a little shocking because she kind of crossed the line a little bit in some people's minds," she said.
"It was very risque," the Nation's David Korn said yesterday on Fox News. "I was wondering what the social conservatives and James Dobson had to say about all these jokes that were laced with sexual innuendo. Not a very family-values-type speech. I'm not sure I want to explain a lot of those jokes to my 4-year-old."
Eyebrows were raised by the first lady's bit about the president's ranching skills, which Mrs. Bush said her husband lacked because the elite schools he attended, Andover and Yale, "don't have a real strong ranching program."
She then added: "He's learned a lot about ranching since that first year when he tried to milk the horse. What's worse, it was a male horse."
The crowd howled. The joke, a female Associated Press reporter said, "had women giggling in the bathroom."
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
I know from prior posting that you raised your children well and have high standards. But we do disagree--strongly--on the approriateness of Mrs. Bush's performance Saturday night. I would have to say in the strongest terms that Mrs. Bush's words are most indicative of a declining culture. Or else she wouldn't have felt the need to say them in order to get a laugh.
What I heard only came across as "risque" if you were living in 1800s victorian england.
Jees, a few jokes about husband going to bed early... being a desperate housewife? She's poking some fun at her own marriage among adults.... Nothing risque about that in my book.
The left is counting on the 'religious right' to overreact to this mild humor.
I'm not saying you have to agree with what she said, but making more of it than was there (which MANY are doing.........not you), and bashing Laura as being immoral (which some freepers are doing..........not you), fits nicely into the leftist stereotype that we are humorless, eat-your-own, holier than thou, prudes.
I'm just saying, disagree if you will.......I understand that completely..... but keep it all in perspective.
Thanks for the reminder of who and why :)
Still think they're idiots (libs that is).
I was disappointed yesterday when I heard the sound bites of her telling the Desperate Housewives and Chippendale's jokes.
If I'm President, there's absolutely no way my First Lady gives either of those entities any publicity, let alone endorsements.
I think it does. It makes conservatives more human, more approachable.
Ranch and farm humor is a little more earthy than your average uptight suburban moralist expects -- but that is normal for folks who deal with the daily realities of sanitation and reproduction. My great-grandmother, who was every inch a Southern lady, grew up on a rural plantation, and even SHE knew the "milk a bull" joke. And told it in my presence at least once (she died when I was 8.)
Mrs. Bush didn't use any bad language, and unless a person already knew the "facts of life" (e.g. the poor 4 year old child of liberals) the joke would go right over his head. That is the essence of "blue" humor - it isn't naughty unless you already know the score, so it goes right over the kids' heads. If you already know the score, you shouldn't be offended. And that sort of humor has always been permissible even for Southern ladies.
I saw 'dirtier' stuff on Red Skelton and Dean Martin in the 1960's than Laura implied Saturday night.
I live to satisfy.
Good grief, she slept in a different bed than Ricky in I Love Lucy! During the 1960s and 1970s, she was a severe critic of the relatively more risque humor of Laugh-In (virtually like Sesame Steeet when viewed from 2005) and Saturday Night Live of the Chevy Chase - Dan Ackroyd era.
Worth repeating.
Her jokes weren't immoral. She's not immoral. Lynn Cheney is not immoral.
I understand. BUT THIS WASN'T SKELTON! This was the first lady of the United States. That's the whole point!
Thanks. I was starting to wonder if my memory was failing.
You really need to get over yourself. I grew up in the South with a Southern Baptist mother, Southern Baptist grandmothers ... etc. I could easily hear each one of them tell a joke like that "in polite company." Are you wanting the First Lady to continue in that mold that the Democrats were trying to put her in during the election? Remember Terezzzaaa's comments about Laura Bush not ever having a "real job"?
Watch it. Get the humor.
Lighten up. Now I know where the stereotype of the Rep,uptight bluenose comes from.
Please, far more "risque" statements were made during the hieght of Victorian England by women and men in public settings! Her speach was delivered to adults was not vulgar or lewd.
Personally anyone who was offended by her self depricating humor is wound a bit too tight. The speach was not intended for children, and the only reason its even being given any airtime is because the press thinks they can cause an outrage over it.
Almost a bingo. They are counting on the needlebutt element of the 'religious right' to further destroy the credibility of both republicans along with the religious right.
Precisely. Sadly, we are in the minority on this thread.
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