Michelle Malkin on what would happen if Teresa made horse jerk-off jokes

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

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.

[Catch22Dem]

1. Yay!!!! Props to Wonkette for getting mentioned

I love Wonkette. Oh, and speaking of a tasteless skank, hello, calling Ms. Malkin, hello!

[sam sarrha]

2. I missed the jokes ... can someone give me a link..??

[babylonsister]

5. Here's one, but there were many the past

few days. I did a search for this w/Laura Bush jokes.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1436686

[emulatorloo]

7. Full Transcript Here

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2005-05-01-laura-bush-comments_x.htm

[wallwriter]

3. Seriously. Another example of complete hypocrisy

Brought to you by the Republican Party

[doodadem]

4. Especially since Bush is terrified of horses

He'd never get close enough to one to perform said maneuver!

[Montauk6]

6. HMMM... something's wrong here...

Is this a spoof?

I mean, shouldn't Malkintent be spinning this so that Pickles is the most BRILLIANT humorist since Will Rogers and only liberal prudes fail to see the comic genius of horse jackoff quips?

She'd better watch it. The Scaifiosi pimps don't like it when their hoes do their own thinking. That's how Brock ended up on our side, recall?

[LittleClarkie]

9. It does seem like she nipped the hand that feeds her a bit

Oh, an independant thought. Kill it!

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. The Bush's have no couth when it comes to these WH Correspondence Din-dins

Don't you remember? They showed the entire press corp. pictures of Daddy Bush bathing in the tub with his kids. That's a little bit weird, don't you think?

[zbdent]

10. This, from the US Concentration-camp grandkid?

I'll believe it when I see it in the papers . . .

(Akron Beacon Journal is usually a day late on the Editorial columns . . .)

[karynnj]

11. OK, Laura makes tasteless jokes -- but Malkin can't convince

herself they're tasteless unless she pictures Teresa saying them?
(Meanwhile per the Pittsburgh paper, Teresa was giving out 5 awards from her foundation to people who were not only excellent in their fields but who nurtured others.) I would argue that Teresa has way too much intelligence, class, and heart to have ever made such jokes about her husband.

What I don't understand is why anyone would have written those jokes if they didn't really at some level detest Bush. (Now, if it Whoopi would have used the same horse joke, the Republicans would STILL be asking Kerry, Edwards and every other Democrat to apologize.)

[Montauk6]

13. No no no no, the QUESTION is

How dim would you have to be not to question or raise a bit of concern(I'm talking about Pickles now) about this material beforehand (e.g. "hey, writer... errrrr... I gotta weird feeling about this horse joke... I mean, we're SUPPOSED to be Consoviet Jeezoids, remember?")?

[Mass]

14. This was done in purpose

They wanted something that would take the media's eyes off the press conference before the media could say it went terrible.

Apparently, it did not work well enough for them (Bush's numbers were down), so they are trying to insist on it a little more.

Typical Rove's strategy.

[karynnj]

19. The press conference was typical Bush, why they want people

talking about this? He was worse in the debates where to make it more obvious, Kerry was there as an articulate, intelligent, sane counterpoint. I really think Rove miscalculated this time.

The conservative columnists are going every which way on it. Some declared it brilliant. Tierney in the NYT seemed to think it would make us blue staters see how charming the Bushes are. A few, seem to be questioning it - which as they 've unquestioningly accepted everything up to now, might mean they've finally stepped over a line. even though it's on something dumb.

Sorry, just saw your post 18 - You're right. It was the main thing talked about for the last 2 days

[orwell]

12. Don't Worry...

A whole lot of brown people died in "Eyeraq" today Michelle.

That should get you all misty for all things Bush.

[alcuno]

15. Nobody has mentioned the joke about eliminating tyranny.

I hear all the time that * is a slacker; Laura confirmed it with that joke. If you want to eliminate tyranny, you're going to have to stay up later. Not funny, but true.

[sonicx]

16. She's right, of course, but who cares. she's still a loon.

[ComerPerro]

17. Wow. Even when she is "upset" with the WH she still fawns over the Bushes

How pathetic

[Mass]

18. This story is the prototype of how Rove works.

And the sad thing is that it still works.

1/ Bush makes a bad performance on TV (or his numbers are bad, ...).

2/ they put out something that is not important, but that they know will be good media (here Lauras speech, but it can be anything else, of course perfectly planned and orchestrated).

3/ the media talks about it, and forgets 1.

4/ the liberal blogs and forums talk about it, and people focus on that, and forget all the other important things (here RealId in the supplemental bill, the Airforce story, the Social Security plan)...

then we start again on the same cycle. Results, we follow their agenda, and not what should be ours.