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 ...
It would have been Risque in 1947. It would have been Risque in 1957. It would have been tasteless in 1967. In 2005, we think it's funny. Aren't we so much more sophisticated than those prudes in 1947?
Most freepers have said if a man told those jokes around his daughters, they would tell them to watch his mouth. That advice stands. If Hillary talked this sort of trash, she would be roundly scolded. You so called "conservatives" who defend Laura are outright hypocrites. If someone took public money to give a sex education course with this kind of language, you would be outraged, but, no, IT'S LAURA BUSH. SHE'S "CLASSY!"
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But this was not Teresa Kerry or Hillary Clinton telling these jokes. Rather, it was Laura Bush.
The Bushes are a successful political family, far more adept than the much touted Kennedys, if only because of a greater degree of discipline. (Laura Bush's remarks comparing her mother-in-law to Don Coreleone are telling in this regard.) They are, at the core, old style Yankees. (This fact was noted in Mrs. Bush's remarks about Andover and Yale not having ranch management courses and Kennebunkport being like Crawford but without the night life.) They believe that the best political strategy is compromise and mediation.
Laura Bush putting on airs of being hip, contemporary, and non-prudish before an audience that was probably made up of a majority of inside-the-Beltway types, mixed Democrats and RINOs, was meant to send a message. What she was communicating was that her husband and his Adminstration, for all their catering to the Christian Right and talk radio conservatives, are willing to do business in the tried and true, "centrist" manner. Subtly dissing the moral conservative base with remarks about going to Chippendale's is an effective way of communicating that message. The "Desperate Housewives" joke is calculated to communicate that the Bushes do not adhere to the traditional code of discretion in private sexual matters.
It is a cold, but realistic calculation. The Bushes may have needed the Robertsons and the Dobsons, the Limbaughs and the Hannitys to get elected and then re-elected. However, in dealing with the Washington powers that be, a lame duck President has to distance himself from a political base that those powers regard as insufficiently "nuanced" or "unsophisticated."
Franklin Roosevelt once observed that in politics, nothing happens by accident. If something happens, you can be sure that it was planned. This high visibility speech before a crowd made up predominately of Democrats and RINOs by a player who is usually quiet (Laura Bush) was about as spontaneous as the Marine Corps' silent drill team. Social conservatives may not like it, but they have been outmaneuvered.
Well, I am a "Born Again" Southern Baptist, and I WAS NOT OFFENDED by Laura's comments. Believe it or not,
some Baptists have a sense of humor. I wonder if David Korn has ever commented on Hillary Clinton's language? She has been known to cuss 'like a sailor', and is not immune to enjoying and participating in very ribald stories. Have these reporters who were so offended ever complained of being offended by Whoopi Goldberg or Robin Williams when they've spoken at Democrat affairs? David Korn is nothing but a pitiful basher of anyone on anything associated with Republicans....he's certainly not a 'fair and balanced' journalist!
The joke she told was a joke about bestiality.
It does not mean that she is practitioner or that anyone says that she is.
You're the one who is overreacting.
fact: she told a very unladylike joke. Our culture is coarsening enough without her help.
But step back and look at what others are saying. They are NOT good people, and they are here to cause trouble and to say vile things about a man and his wife whose POLITICS they don't like.
They are not voicing legitimate concerns as you are. They are using this thread as an opportunity to bash a man they hate......through his lovely wife.
Did you conduct a poll????????????
Be offended to your hearts content, my friend.
Precisely, and judging from some of the comments on these several threads, they are succeeding in some quarters.
I just listened to her comments on C-span, and you can count me in as a person who does not find her comments out of line.
She and George are human beings, and he was voted to be the President, not the Pope.
On the other hand, calling the first lady a whore is way over the top.
I might be wondering that if my congregation was not raising money to expand seating in our church by 50%.
But it is.
Puritans - eternally resentful that someone, somewhere, might be having a moment of fun.
Real fun is spending time with your family and friends, not telling jokes to the Washington press corps.
That is how you took it. I took it as a joke about someone being so inept on a ranch that they cannot tell the difference between a cow and a male horse, which is, of course, a joke.
you hope what isn't true? What is definitely over the line. LIGHTEN UP. She was fantastic and got a standing O and she turned those media types and their lefty guests on their pointy little heads.
I read Laura's comments and fell over laughing. For all those criticising her - Good grief!! Cant people appreciate humor anymore?? Laura was awesome and if people cant enjoy a joke there is something seriously wrong with them..
I felt the same way. Even my Christian sensibilities weren't distressed over this. It was said in fun and it was darn funny! She's a national treasure.
Sorry! Pardon my assumption. My Southern Baptist upbringing jumped right out there.
No way. This wasn't about retarded farm boys having their way with the livestock. THAT's bestiality - obtaining sexual gratification from animals. This old joke is about the city slicker who is too ignorant to tell a cow from a bull. No sexual element whatsoever.
That is pretty basic confusion about the meaning of words.
I, however do have the advantage of viewing several of your comments, none of which merit a response.
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