Eat The Press

Novak In A Darth Vader Suit: Funny, But An Ironic Funny

Rachel Sklar |  Posted Monday April 2, 2007 at 01:16 PM

Washington Post writer Linton Weeks was not impressed with the chumminess on display at the annual Gridiron Dinner in D.C., the second in a trifecta of ho-ho-ho-fests between the press and the administration, beginning with last week's RTCA Awards (two words: MC Rove) and culminating in this month's White House Correspondent's Dinner (four words: Anyone but Stephen Colbert). Says Linton:

It's one thing for comedians and satirists to turn political transgressions into punch lines. It's another for those of us charged with exposing those sins to make light of them. And for people who committed the sins to be guffawing at our jokes in the audience. How can reporters ask the tough questions -- about, yes, the Iraq war, global warming and perjury -- of politicians on Monday morning when we've been yukking it up together about those very same issues on Saturday night?

Examples of said yukking include the eye-popping following:

• Robert Novak dressed up as Darth Vader. Not as himself, as Dick Cheney singing "It's Not Easy Being Mean."
  
• Cheney, proving otherwise with his revolting quip about Al Gore riffing on the smear about how much energy Gore's house uses: "Many argue that global warming is man-made — and it looks like they found the man." The hypocrisy in this statement is staggering.
  
• USA Today's Susan Page as part of "The Bleedin' Lib'ral Press Corps Band": "We swear by Scooter Libby we / Will burn a source without remorse / We love to burn a source." Honestly, what are these people THINKING?

Linton is appalled at the spectacle, which included joking about the surge and how the U.S. wasn't, in fact, greeted in Iraq as liberators, calling it a "charade parade" (they should have had him write lyrics, it sounds like they could have used the help). ETP is all for song and dance routines, but this sounds less like arch commentary set to music than tired Republican talking points in verse. Forgive us if that strikes a sour note.

Stand Up Comity, One Night Only [WaPo]