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At the 1988 Dem convention, Ann Richards was chosen as "The Hatchet Man" = the speaker who gets the coveted job of attacking the other party's nominee with a speech written by the best writers their party can recruit, a speech filled with the nastiest sarcastic zinger put-downs they can think of.

In her exaggerated Texas drawl, she enumerated the list of the worst verbal gaffes GHWB had made in his life, and accused him of being a spoiled rich kid of a US Senator. The "big zinger" in the Hatchet Speech combined these two themes:

"Pooowor Geooorge! He jus' cain't he'p hisself! He was bawrn with a silver fooowot in his maowwwwth!"

For years after, Dan Rather would play that clip on CBS "news" shows ad nauseum, and never failed to fall off his chair and roll on the floor with tears of laughter streaming down his cheeks, just to hear again for the 1000th time what surely must be the funniest line ever written in all creation, or at least according to Rather.

And the frequency of its being played was ramped up in 1994, when Bush's son, derisively referred to as "Shrub" by the Texas Dem/Media establishment - including Richards & Rather, was running what looked to be an impossible campaign to unseat Gov Ann Richards. Whenever the economy is doing great - as it was in Texas that year, it's a safe bet that a scandal-less incumbent Governor will ALWAYS cruise to an easy re-election.

But the conventional wisdom disappeared that year. Dubya beat her by a huge margin. And the next day, as reported by Rush, the joke going around Texas was ---

"Pooowor Ann! She jus' cain't he'p herself! She woke up this mawrnin' with a silver boooot in her butt!"

I've always loved stories of come-uppance like that!