Did you hear the one about the President and the press?

[emad]

Times
From Gerard Baker in Washington



AN AMERICAN rite of spring begins tonight when President Bush takes the podium in the ballroom of the Washington Hilton Hotel, a couple of hundred yards from the White House.

Every year, at about this time, American presidents are required, by convention and personal vanity, to participate in a very Washingtonian institution — a kind of trial-by-joke. At a series of dinners starting with this evening’s annual celebration of the Gridiron Club, the President’s task will be to show his humorous side.

Since the 1950s only national tragedies or war have excused the President from the obligation to entertain his hosts with some thigh-slapping jokes, stiletto-like barbs and cheery anecdotes. But these events, which continue next month with the Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner and the White House Correspondents Dinner, are much more than just breaks from the seriousness of politics.

Humour probably plays a bigger formal role in American politics than in any other country, the main purpose being to demonstrate that great men still have a human side.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,175-1521611,00.html
Humorous side????? Ain't nothin funny about *---

[gumby]

1. Maybe he can recycle some old favorites.

There's the one about hitting the Trifecta and the one about looking for WMD under the Oval Office furniture. hahaha....NOT.

[brainshrub]

2. Another rite of Spring:

The conservative House of Representatives will pass a Flag-burning Amendment.

Usually, the Senate strikes it down. Two years from now, the Republicans will have 60 seats. Then the real fun begins.