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 ...
So do I. I have been advised to stand down and not say anything more and have done so. But some of the people who I know from years on FR are now making such negative comments and casting aspersions to the motives and hearts of conservative Christians that it really hurts. I find it very, very discouraging.
if you let a sense of humor change your opinion of Mrs Bush... good for you!!!
I saw the speech. She was great and funny. Her smile was genuine, her fondness for George obvious and the best part was a side by side comparison with Hildebeast's occasional quips.
The folks that got their knickers in a knot about Laura need to get a freeking life. The hypocrisy is so blatant and the faux shock is so dishonest that I feel yesterdays dinner coming up as a 4 alarm hurl alert....
for all the others
But C.S. Lewis DID recognize such mentalities for what they are and wrote this::
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under live robber barons than under omnipotent moral busibodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good, will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
And what is "telling" about YOU is that YOU would accuse someone of making a comment they did not make.. or agree with.
Well, I guess having company was a blessing then; I cannot believe what I am reading.
I am not so sure about that.... You may repel twice your number. Some of us are tired of being threatened by the tediously pious. I've seen some here that I KNOW I'd fight to keep from making any rules for me.
Don't you know that you aren't allowed to have an opinion that differs from the Christian bashers? When will you leran child....just kidding....I know you know.
I mean, if you disagree with them then you are horrible, terrible, low-life, Jimmy Swaggert loving,....I could go on and on, but you get the picture.
Don't let the usual suspects get you down....they are a small group.
Exactly right. Loosen up, folks. No four letter words were used, no one was insulted, except the President in a jovial manner.
Absolutely this in fact was the least controversial joke and it seems to have caused the most flack I just do not understand it.
Maybe in your eyes, but then you are in the what? .000001% of the American population who don't have a sense of humor?
Exactly. Perhaps we'll be seeing some mugshots from some of these people here.
Rudeness is the new American virtue, evidently.
To insinuate a kind, good, and noble woman like Laura Bush to be trailer trash, and a whore is a great example of the new American crudity and shows a lack of good sense and adequate training in grace and manner.
Gentlemen, and gentlewomen, know the difference between teasing, crassness and trampiness, and do not call the first the latter.
Moreover, they know when not to make an issue, especially when it shows their lack of class. And in the doing, know ways that bring the erring soul back to where they ought to be without dragging them through the mud.
But this takes the ability to step back and get out of the pig wallow of in your face rudeness first.
People with grace learn this young. We tend to look up to them. Others seem to live in the trailer park of their minds no matter what the kind instruction they receive.
Just ridiculous hype over a roasting. Laura is not to be f-cked with, and she proved it the other night. She can wear a couple of masks if need be.
Your cohort in this fight, the foul farmer did.........when he was telling us how moral he is, I think........
The vast majority of us ARE Christians.
We're just not the prigs that you all appear to be.
No, it was told to them to poke fun at just what they are - stupid city slickers...........the joke was aimed at them, not at the President.
You don't get much more "cityslicker" than growing up in NYC, which I did.............and I got that joke when I was 10 years old.
It's amazing how irony is missed by so many.
I'm curious, do you believe that the First Lady was telling a joke about the President of the US, jacking-off an animal?
Do you think her joke writer or herself would think that would be funny?
How is it funny? To masterbate an animal?
It's not.
It was funny because it is a very old funny farmer joke, and she always makes fun of him trying to be a rancher, she has told many jokes of the city vs rancher kind.
"Every FReeper should be a mindless follower of the latest fashion. That's what being a conservative is all about, right?"
Nope. Just don't be a dufus. Show some reason and thoughtfulness. Don't trash the First Lady over a few sharp jokes.
Try to win an election without us. But don't worry, the Republicans that be, you know, those actually in charge, know where the votes come from.
How disingenuous can one get? Every 50's comedy that didn't involve puppets was chock-full of innuendo. Milton Berle was the worst, but they all did it. And Lucille Ball's character was a sneaky, manipulating, covetous liar. Just about every ILL revolved around her dishonesty and blind ambition to be on the stage. How is that morally superior to the First Lady using absurdity to inject a little much-needed humor into a dark time? These people have the fate of the world resting on their shoulders. Good grief, man, cut 'em a little slack!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.