Laura leaves 'em laughing, gasping (Not a very family-values-type speech..very risque: David Korn)

WashingtonTimes ^ | May 02, 2005 | By Joseph Curl

[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."

[Howlin]

. A gutter culture at the top means a welfare state at the bottom. The story was that even Lady Bird Johnson walked out of the room when LBJ indulged his considerable trench mouth. Now we don't even need LBJ. We've got Laura!

You are losing more and more credibility with every single post you make; keep it up.

[Jackson57]

Uh shucks, thanks. This thread has been interesting to say the least.

[Mrs.Liberty]

"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."

Yes...I often discussed jokes from a White House Press Corps Dinner with my preschoolers. Give me a break.

[Howlin]

Well, I am a wife; and I didn't take it at all to mean anything other than a "city slicker" joke.

[ohioWfan]

The whole routine was funny, IF you understand the First Couple and their wonderful senses of humor.

Much of the feigned outrage on this thread is coming from people who are looking for any way they can to make this President look bad.

Only all they're doing is making themselves look bad.

[MamaB]

Isn't that the truth? I could be called a "prude" but I have heard the cow and bull story since I was a kid. It just shows the way some farmers and ranchers talk about newcomers who do not know the difference between the two. In face, my older brother was in the Army going somewhere on a train. A friend of his did not know the difference between the horses and cows they were seeing along the way! Some people need to get a life if this is the only thing they have to complain about.

I thought her speech was wonderful and the audience must have thought so too, since they gave her a standing ovation at the end.

[Howlin]

Only a liberal could see something sexual in those remarks.

You're in for a rude awakening when you read the rest of this thread. :-)

[Pippin]

I see!

It seems no one is happy if the aren't complaining about something and if they cant find anything to complain about they invent them.

[Wallace T.]

Except this is not a casual Saturday evening at the 19th hole of a Midland country club. This is the First Lady of the United States giving a very public speech before an audience of influential people, a majority of whom were Democrats or RINOs. It would be naive to think that her remarks were casual and off-the-cuff. They were intended to appeal to that audience and to communicate that the Administration is not inflexible on issues dear to social conservatives, because, at heart, they are not really that way, for all the patronizing speeches to appeal to them.

[ohioWfan]

She even included comments about Andover and Yale in her 'city slicker' jokes.

It's completely obvious what she was doing...............to anyone who's not looking for trouble.

[snugs]

So you won't say heck but you think it's appropriate for a lady to tell jokes about bestiality.

It is your interpretation that makes it bestiality this is an old farming ranching joke no more no less.

[dirtboy]

Well, I am a wife; and I didn't take it at all to mean anything other than a "city slicker" joke.

That's your perogative. However, realize that the opinions of others may vary, and that doesn't mean they're dead wrong. Laura danced right along the line of propriety - which means she can be viewed by one side as over the line and the other side as within the line.

[Howlin]

First of all, how would one go about milking a horse.

I grew up on a farm; I got the joke; and I knew exactly what she was talking about; a Yalie not knowing which "cow" to milk.

You all can make of it what you need to; it is what it is.

[OKIEDOC]

Protagoras wrote:
"On this type of website, people should be examining her position on abortion instead of this type of stuff."

You dang right. I hope that when I get to heaven that I'm not punished by being paired with some of these old boring, better than thou Puritan posters on this thread.

If these people want a reverend for president then they need to vote for Jackson, Sharpton or the faith healing Edwards/Kerry ticket.

[Howlin]

The left thinks Christians are a bunch of fuddy-duddy's - and we're not.

I beg to differ; keep reading this thread.......LOL.

[dirtboy]

It's completely obvious what she was doing...............to anyone who's not looking for trouble.

EXCUSE ME? My wife wasn't looking for trouble at all. She just doesn't like the coursesness of Desperate Housewives and how ABC/Disney plasters references to that show everywhere - even in alleged family time. But apparently she's out to cause trouble for the Bush family and isn't making an honest criticism.

As another show on ABC would say, "Give me a break."

[wideawake]

Bull. Like Jesus did when dealing with the legalists, I merely exposed you as the self-righteous "accuser" that you are.

Hmmm . . . so you are accusing me of being a Pharisee just like in the Scripture passage.

Yet at the same time you say that you are not calling me a lying son of Satan, even though that is exactly what the Pharisees in the passage were identified as.

OK.

let's go back to the beginning.

My opinion is that a lady and a public figure like Mrs. Bush shouldn't tell off-color jokes.

I stand by that opinion, I don't see how that makes me a Pharisee - unless all norms of social propriety are equivalent to Pharisaism, and only a unbridled gangsta rapper is free from the taint of being a Pharisee.

[joesbucks]

Again, what would one be grabbing if one is milking a male horse?

[shhrubbery!]

Don't stand down twigs, a lot of us here agree with you.

I understand how you find some of the attitudes expressed here discouraging, but I suspect we are in the real majority. I think our opinions only appear to be in the minority, because many won't post anymore on this topic out of disgust over of the ferocity and downright nastiness of the reaction.

Like the Schiavo case, this story is bringing disillusionment in more than one way. Posters we'd thought we knew and respected have taken positions we would never have thought possible, and are engaging in surprisingly foul, ad hominem behavior. The coarsening of our culture and the infiltration of Leftist attitudes has infected even (some) conservatives.

My take on the whole schmeer is that this is healthy disillusionment. We are seeing some things, and some people, as they really are.

[yellowdoghunter]

Oh no, we must all fall lock-step in line and if you don't then you are the worst and will be attacked until you no longer feel welcome on FR. sarcasm off/

Just know people that this is a small group...the majority of FReepers would not attack you over and over just because they disagree with you.