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 ...
Possibly this very thing might be the fundamental flaw resulting in your inability to see the humor here?
Hillary couldn't, she was too busy hiding FBI files, shredding documents and trying to save her hubby's legacy while inadvertently forming the VRWC.
No.
The twins were the product of artificial insemination.
George and Laura never had sex at all.
You need a tractor sent over to pull the needle out of your butt?
Sorry, I don't think it was funny at all. I thought it was dreadful. No, I can't picture such classy ladies in that type of atmostphere at all; nor do I wish to. Yes, Mrs. Bush definitely has a twinkle in her eye. I have always found her delightful. Now I know that she can sink along with the rest of them. Most of her routine was good; she should have shown more discernment.
Oh for Heaven's sake. There was nothing "over the line" about Laura's performance. She was funny and gentle and radient and the President gave her a big hug at the end. Both he and the audience were falling off their chairs with laughter. I have watched the whole thing two or three times. There are no jokes that need explaining to a 4 year old. Anyone who thought it was risque has a twisted mind.
The whole act was written around the President's well documented habit of going to bed early and the quiet life in Crawford and Kennebunk. She wound up her speech saying how much she loves and appreciates her husband and the whole Bush clan for filling an empty space in her own personality.
Typical lines included her description of a vacation at Kennebunk: "just like Crawford without the night life."
And: "Everyone thinks Barbara Bush is a sweet Aunt Bea type -- actually, she's more like Don Corleone." And: "First prize is a 3 day family vacation with the whole Bush Clan at Kennebunk. 2nd price is 10 days." And: "I told George if he is really serious about ending world tyrany, he's got to stay up later." And describing how her marriage was fated: "I was a librarian, spending 12 hours a day in the library and somehow I managed to meet George." And how Goerge learned ranching on his own: "They didn't have a strong ranching program at Andover and Yale."
Get over it!
My dad has black angus cows and last year the bulls needed to be banded. Perhaps the joke would have been ok if he had tried to band the milk cows instead of the bulls? People can be such prudes. IT WAS FUNNY!!
President Bush does it all the time, as did his Mom, and countless others prior to 1970.
And with the lights out! Any other way would have been too tawdry. LOL.
You've never paid much attention to Betty Ford or Barbara Bush, have you?
But I wouldn't worry about Barbara, if I were you. She can dish it out, and she can take it.
George W. teases about her all the time, and I'm sure it was just fine with her for Laura to do it as well.
(I'll bet Bar laughed at the Don Corlione crack.........she LIKES being called "The Enforcer." :o)
Even conservatives are in want of class at times, as your words so "elegantly" remind us. Mrs. Bush doing this type of thing doesn't do us any favors.
Vander Huevel is married? I mistook her for a bitter lesbian.
And Lynn was laughing like crazy at it.
She did wonderfully! Her demeanor toward her hubby, her innocent delivery, the embarrassed blush, et-al, made a huge leap with the middleground. She was already beloved, still is, but her and hubby are more human, and, most importantly, she distanced the administration from the needlebutts. They recognize how badly the needlebutt caricature hurts our cause.
"Eating their own" ? "Holier than thou"? I don't think so. One reason I'm both a Republican and a conservative is that we have higher standards and that we speak up when disagree with one another. I'm proud not to be part of the herd mentality of democrats. I think Mrs. Bush was wrong and I think she needs to realize that not everyone thought her humorous descent was helpful.
Never saw Red Skelton live, did you?
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