Posted on 05/01/2005 4:54:50 AM PDT by Rebelbase
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - First Lady Laura Bush grabbed the stage from President Bush at the White House correspondents annual dinner on Saturday and confessed to all his early bedtimes had turned her into a "desperate housewife."
Laura Bush, who is often seen smiling sweetly at her husband's side, stood up just in time to rescue the audience of political heavyweights and Hollywood celebrities from Bush's retelling of a joke about steel rail "cattle guards" that bombed before a Montana town meeting in March.
"Not that old joke -- not again," Laura Bush said, as her husband willingly relinquished the stage.
"I've been attending these dinners for years and just quietly sitting there," the First Lady told the audience. "Well, I've got a few things I want to say for a change."
One of her main targets was the president's bed time.
"I said to him the other day, 'George, if you really want to end tyranny in this world, you're going to have to stay up later,"' Laura Bush said. "Nine o'clock and Mr. Excitement here is in bed, and I am watching 'Desperate Housewives' -- with Lynne Cheney. Ladies and gentlemen, I am a desperate housewife."
Laura Bush also ribbed her husband for his notoriously rowdy youth, but said they were meant to be together.
"I was a librarian that spent 12 hours a day in the library. Yet somehow I met George."
Laura Bush's string of one-liners generated hearty laughs from the audience, which included celebrity names such as Richard Gere, Mary Tyler Moore, Venus and Serena Williams, Goldie Hawn and Elle MacPherson, as well as journalists and politicians.
The roasting continued as comedian Cedric the Entertainer took the stage, even though he conceded that "I thought I could follow the president. The first lady is something different."
He said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has two sides to her, one that's all business and one that has street credibility.
"Condi is the person you see on television with the nice hair, and then there's Leezza, the one with her hair wrapped up on the phone with her girlfriends watching BET (Black Entertainment Television)."
Yes she did! It was amazingly funny. I thought I was watching a good ol' fashioned Dean Martin Celebrity Roast!
lighten up...
it was a friggin joke...
have a laugh...
I'll agree. The horse joke was taken too far.
There were people in the crowd with the classic deer in the headlights look, wondering if what they were hearing was real. I was laughing my butt off!
There is nothing more endearing than a COUPLE who can laugh at each other and not take it seriously. It shows they are completely comfortable with each other and totally in love. You just know GWB will get paybacks next year. I can't wait.
I think these were the same people that were screaming about W when he cracked the jokes back in 2004 about the WMDs and all that....
I thought it one of the funniest comedy routines I have heard in a very long time.
Her delivery was impeccable. Perfect comic timing, imo.
Lighten up, dude.
I have a feeling they're getting calls and emails requesting to run it. So, it may be best to phone them and see if you can get a time if you don't want to keep checking the TV or their website for updates.
Maybe a FReeper will post the times it will be replayed on a separate thread. I'd love to watch it again.
This morning on the news shows that are showing the clips are editing out the Chipendale line and there is no mention of the President milking a male horse.
That suggests there may be more than 3 or 4 others that find the remarks inappropriate.
I have said it before
WHO CARES?!?!
Better yet
LIGHTEN UP!!!
sheesh...I can't imagine why people think some Conservatives are uptight about everything or anything....
I think you're missing the whole idea of the dinner and it's tradition. It's supposed to be a time of "letting your hair down". And she did it well.
Yes, and check out transcripts for this dinner from 2004, 2003...
It appears that I am, also.
I didn't see this, but from what I have read of it this morning, it sounds inappropriate. I certainly would not want children exposed to the language or behavior that I have read about, and it isn't behavior that I expect from a First Lady.
I tried to find out when CSPAN will run it. It's on CSPAN 3 today a couple of times but we only get CSPAN 1 and 2. Help. I really want to see this monologue.
RE: the joke about GWB trying to milk the male horse.
You need to get your nose out of the gutter. I took it as just a joke about GWB being too dumb to know the difference.
It may not come off too well when printed, but the jokes were obviously meant as gentle ribbing from a loving wife, not the nasty kind of stuff you might get from a Hillary or a Theresa. Laura is just too sweet to take it any other way. Besides, it is just so incongruous that the sweet librarian would be going to Chippendales, that she was equally poking herself.
Also, it tended to be poking her finger in the eye of the press who has always portrays GWB as a dumb cowboy who is so testosterone driven that he can't keep from going to war with anyone in sight. She obviously loves him very much.
Good natured ribbing which is meant and taken in good humor is a wonderful part of life. You're entitled to your opinion but I think her routine was in excellent taste.
If she had said it with your crude language, perhaps... but she didn't. She said it with coy language and let you fill in the blanks. Maybe you've never spent much time in the country, but people who do keep animals actually are keenly familiar with the organs and functions of animals, and actually can talk about them without blushing. It's funny to joke about trying to milk a horse... a male horse. It's because it's preposterous, not kinky, dear.
Have you ever seen a correspondent's dinner before? It's a roast of the president, usually done by comedians who tell adult jokes and punch closer to the mark than any other night of the year.
There are those who do not tolerate anything less than the Sainted Virgin Mary from our wonderful First Lady.
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