Michelle Malkin on what would happen if Teresa made horse jerk-off jokes [View All]

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http://michellemalkin.com/archives/002316.htm

Reviews of the First Lady's stand-up routine at the White House Correspondents Dinner keep pouring in. John Tierney gives it two thumbs up. Wlady Pleszczynski hated it. The Washington Post rounds up more reaction and there's a spirited debate over at Lucianne.com.

I'll have a bit more to say related to this in my column tomorrow, but here's my quick two cents: I love Laura Bush because of her natural charm and unaffected style. "Grace" is a word that had not been synonymous with "First Lady" for many years. Anyone who has watched Mrs. Bush in action--she was lovely on Jay Leno's show about a week ago, cracking easy jokes about Bush and baseball--already knows she has a brain to match her grace. No need to go out of her way to prove it.

Most of Mrs. Bush's humor at the correspondents' dinner was just right: Edgy but not over the edge. But I think the stripper and horse jokes were totally beneath her. Just put it to the other-shoe test: If it were Teresa Heinz Kerry standing up on the dais telling the same jokes, the conservative commentariat would be buzzing for the rest of the year about what a tasteless skank she is.

"Lighten up?" How about cleaning up? The First Lady resorting to cheap horse masturbation jokes is not much better than Whoopi Goldberg trafficking in dumb puns on the Bush family name. Unlike many Beltway and Manhattan commentators, I do not think the Wonkette-ization of the White House is a good thing.