West Wing Writer has “died and gone to heaven”

Let’s use taxpayer money to have a comedy roast of the previous administration, and against major voices of opposition, while they’re not present. That’s classy.

As disgusting as the whole thing was, and as vulgar as Wanda is, we need a note of reality here. The event is sponsored by the White House Correspondents Association, a professional organization, not the government. Their newspapers and networks and other media businesses pay for the event, and for their luminaries to attend the event and to invite guests. The purpose is to raise money for scholarships. The taxpayers’ contribution would be to pay the security costs of guarding the president and his wife. The person who posted this blog item apparently is unaware of the nature of this event and nevertheless opined. This embarrasses us all. I find it interesting that when Bush was President, the White House Correspondents always had comedians who made fun of him, and the Bush administration (Steve Colbert was so nasty several Bushies walked out), and before that, they hired comedians who trashed Clinton and the Clinton administration when he was in office. But now that BO is in the White House, they continue to trash Bush and give BO miss. Coinkydink? I think not.

"The person who posted this blog item apparently is unaware of the nature of this event and nevertheless opined. This embarrasses us all."

Hey, it embarrasses me more than you!

I appreciate the clarification. I feel much better about the event now, knowing that Barack can use the funds of the WHCA for his own publicity campaign for a day. Plus, if he was already in town, he might've just carted over in the new Fiat, rather than hopping in the ol' AF1. Too bad they won't reconsider bailing out those newspapers such as the great Boston Herald. There must be a way...

Anyway, I removed the words taxpayer dollars from the blog post at news-political.com, although the posts here are not editable. And I would hypothesize that the cost of preparing security for the event, and presidential transportation, cost a pretty penny. And speechwriters were reportedly working on Obama's joke reel for 2 weeks:

"Behind the scenes for Obama's speech: What went into President Barack Obama's well-received array of jokes on Saturday night at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner? About two weeks of work, says Jon Favreau, the president's chief speechwriter. Favreau told The Examiner that that's how long it took himself, speechwriter Jon Lovett, Obama political adviser David Axelrod and a team of joke writers to craft the punchlines. He also said they spent several hours on Friday, working out his opening sight gag with the teleprompter screens." I don't think the WHCA was footing that bill either.

I was too busy today earning $6 serving on jury duty, (while getting my discounted parking garage rate of $5.50, and driving 63 miles round trip) to adequately fact check this blog post. It's better to serve! (someone was trying to scam a driver for medical expenses, despite no damage to the vehicle.)

I know this isn’t going to make you feel any better, and heaven knows I don’t have any use for BO, but...they’ve been having that dinner for decades, it is always the same, the White House correspondents jumped in bed with him more than a year ago, and the writers are already on the White House payroll. I feel your pain about the jury duty. I don’t know where you live, but in DC it is a nightmare of epic proportions.

I realize it's an annual event, but I would point out that this year's event is not the same as always, it was the Academy Awards all over again, similar to the pre-inauguration parties. And the event was used as a publicity ploy unlike ever before.

"He's revitalized the whole event the way he's revitalized this town," Holder said. "He's not only a star he's a substantive guy."

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood stood in the middle of the ballroom watching the flow of celebs trickle in. "This is the largest crowd I've ever seen," LaHood said. "It's all about Obama. This is his night."

President Obama's star shines brightest at WHCD

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