President George W. “Shrub” Bush basically snubbed the White House press corps in public Saturday night when he copped out of speaking to the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.

The Associated Press is reporting that “First lady Laura Bush stole the show with a surprise comedy routine that ripped President Bush and brought an audience that included much of official Washington and a dash of Hollywood to a standing ovation at a dinner honoring award-winning journalists.”

The president began a speech late Saturday at the 91st annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, but was quickly “interrupted” by his wife in an obviously planned ploy.

“Not that old joke, not again,” she said to the delight of the audience. “I’ve been attending these dinners for years and just quietly sitting there. I’ve got a few things I want to say for a change.”

The president sat down and she proceeded to note that he is “usually in bed by now” and said she told him recently, “If you really want to end tyranny in the world, you’re going to have to stay up later.”

She outlined a typical evening: “Nine o’clock, Mr. Excitement here is sound asleep and I’m watching ‘Desperate Housewives’.” Comedic pause. “With Lynne Cheney. Ladies and gentlemen, I am a desperate housewife.”

She took a few other roast-style shots at the first hubby, including this one: “I was the librarian who spent 12 hours a day in the library and yet somehow I met George.”

I was going to put the C-SPAN link in here since I was watching it live. But the server went down temporarily and then since the prez just sat there grinning and smirking at his wife - whose approval rating in public opinion polls is double his own - the show is not worth watching.

There were more celebrities than real reporters anyway, sparking a controversy over the procedure for doling out tickets. But that’s such inside baseball for members of the public that it would be a waste of blog width to say anything more about it.

I should have a column length post for a Sunday column, so check back then.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 30th, 2005 at 10:51 pm and is filed under President Bush. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.