Bush at Gridiron Dinner -- No Jokes About Missing WMD This Time!

Last night, George W. Bush attended his final Gridiron Dinner in Washington, D.C. No, this is not football-related, but rather a longtime, quasi-secret annual gathering of journalists and politicians, who perform skits or sing. Bush last night surprised the attendees by warbling "Green Green Grass of Home," about returning to Texas for good, changing the lyrics to "Brown Brown Grass of Home."

Some might suggest a more apt tune could be "If I Only Had a Brain." But at least he didn' t joke about never finding those dang WMD in Iraq.

For years, presidents have been attending the annual dinners of media correspondents in Washington, accepting some good-natured ribbing (to show they are human) and dishing out some of their own. Usually, in the past, it was not highly charged, but those hoots rarely occurred during war time, and charges against the media for excessive cronyism were rarely heard back then.

This began to change four years ago, in March 2004, when Bush joked about missing WMDs, followed two years later by the famous Stephen Colbert in-his-face mockery of both the president and the pundits (which I cover extensively in my new book, see below).

So let's go back to one of the low points of the Bush presidency -- and the U.S. media.

It was a classic Washington moment. The date: March 24. The setting: The 60th annual black-tie dinner of the Radio and Television Correspondents Association (with many print journalists there as guests) at the Hilton. On the menu: surf and turf. Attendance: 1500. The main speaker: President Bush, one year into the Iraq war, with 500 Americans already dead.

Bush, as usual at such gatherings of journalists, poked fun at himself. Great leeway is granted to presidents (and their spouses) at such events, allowing them to offer somewhat tasteless or even off-color barbs. Audiences love to laugh along with, rather than at, a president, for a change. It's all in good fun, except when it's bad fun, such as on this night.

Because in the middle of his stand-up routine before the (perhaps tipsy) journos, Bush showed on a screen behind him some candid on-the-job photos of himself. One featured him gazing out a window, as Bush narrated, smiling: "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere." According to the transcript this was greeted with "laughter and applause."

A few seconds later, he was shown looking under papers, behind drapes, and even under his desk, with this narration: "Nope, no weapons over there" (met with more "laughter and applause"), and then "Maybe under here?" (just "laughter" this time).

Still searching, he settled for finding a photo revealing the Skull and Bones secret signal.

The Washington Post seemed to find this something of a howl. Jennifer Frey's report, carried on the front page of the Style section -- under the headline, "George Bush, Entertainer in Chief" -- led with Donald Trump's appearance, and mentioned without comment Bush's "recurring joke" of searching for the WMD.

The Associated Press review was equally jovial: "President Bush poked fun at his staff, his Democratic challenger and himself Wednesday night at a black-tie dinner where he hobnobbed with the news media." In fact, it is hard to find any immediate account of the affair that raised questions about the president's slide show. Many noted that the WMD jokes were met with general and loud laughter.

The reporters covering the gala were apparently as swept away with laughter as the guests. One of the few attendees to criticize the president's gag, David Corn of The Nation, told me he heard not a single complaint from his colleagues at the after-party. Corn wondered if they would have laughed if President Reagan, following the truck bombing of our Marines barracks in Beirut, which killed 241, had said at a similar dinner: "Guess we forgot to put in a stop light."

The backlash, such as it was, that emerged later came not from many in the media, but from Democrats -- and some Iraq veterans. But I did not expect to hear or read any second thoughts from most attendees. After all, many of them also sold the public a bill of goods on WMD. No joke.

**
NOTE This and other controversies are fully probed in my brand-new book, So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq (Union Square Press), the first five-year history of the war, and much more.

**
A video of the Bush WMD routine is up at my blog:
http://gregmitchellwriter.blogspot.com/

Comments

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

An even better choice for The Naked Emperor's musical number would have been: http://youtube.com/watch?v=d1GhgIp645I

[realpolitic]

Bush this year made as many inappropriate comments as last. He joked about pardoning the convicted criminal Scooter Libby and about tearing apart the Justice Department. Bush just has too much space between his two ears where his mind should be. Journalists who attend this Marie Antoinette "let then eat cake" type of appear are a disgrace.

[crablover]

Durango is dead-on. The "media elite" of the inside-the-Beltway journalists are considered stars by their newspapers and broadcast networks. They generate revenue for their corporations. They receive plenty of money, perks and preferential treatment. They are beholden to the very people they are supposed to cover! I saw it myself in the 25 years I lived and worked in DC.

But if you think the press has failed us now, just wait until the corporations succeed in "consolidating" the media, when all opinion that deviates from the corporate/fascist line is deemed "treason."

Oh where is Edward R. Murrow when we need him?

Keith Olbermann comes closest to calling things as he sees them, yet more than 30% of his program is dedicated to fluff stories and personality crap.

Thank God for the Internet -- that is until your corporate-owned internet provider starts to censor what you write and read!

Throw all the bums out of DC now and start fresh, as someone has already suggested. The entrenched and enthroned will never surrender power. My own congressman, who "promised" his constituents that he would only serve two terms and return to his "real job," is running for his fifth term, because he's gotten used to being treated like a prince and enjoying the largess of the lobbyists. Why should have to work like the people he represents, when he can simply do the bidding of special interests?

I say, "Enough! I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

If we let them take our freedom in trade for our "comfortable lifestyle," we don't deserve to be free people.

Patriots unite! Your country needs you more than ever!

[WWAOU]

Greg, It is wonderful to see you posting here. I may have said this to you before but it is worth repeating: the columns that make up your wonderful new book kept me reasonably sane during the early days of the war. Few people were commenting on the grossly immoral abdication by the press of journalistic rigor. it was a very sad time.
Now when I look at photographs of wounded soldiers or when I sit and talk with them at Walter Reed, I get furious that few in the press understood that their cheerleading would have dire consequences for many, many thousands of people.
Thanks for your courage.
Trish

[donkee]

the bush legacy

right there on youtube

heh...

[foofighter]

Bush is a member of a family that think they are American royalty. Yes, his face is blank and his eyes are dead and he is as stupid as he looks. But he is surrounded by some very bright schemers who tell him what to do. If he is an embarrassment to any of these people, he more than makes up for it by his malleability.

If this country ever gets out of the trouble it's in, I would hope it thinks twice before electing another oilman-plutocrat to the presidency. And any Democrat who is beholden to the people behind Bush.

[ajax2]

What a coincidence that the video shows Joe Lieberman laughing the most at this mass murder joke.

[WFB]

I don't know. I thought his little quip about "some oil rich Saudi" might be just as offensive, and that others might agree if they understood the context:

http://www.asecondlookatthesaudis.com

Bush seems to be unwittingly conceding who his true constituents are, and explaining why we've made as little progress in wrapping up Al Qaeda as we have in finding those WMDs.

[cmarotta99]

It was only a joke.

[bumpersticker]

Like having Andrew Dice Clay bury your mother.

"Little Jack's mother...

At least LBJ owned the burden of his decisions.

[peterg76]

Just like the old Soviet journalism, but with less class.

[PierreLeClerke]

This gruesome Cabal of Criminals, breaks our Law with the arrogance of entitlement right in our face. We sit and complain about it. I say no more. These crimes against one man, are crimes against all men. The Nation must remove this cancer now.
On April 1st 2008, if Congress has failed to begin Impeachment proceeding against these heinous criminals. We The People will ABOLISH this Government in its entirety. It is our solemn duty, from which we shall not shrink nor waiver, under our Constitution, to ABOLISH any Government that has failed in it's duty to uphold the Rule of Law. There is no room for alternate interpretation, no mitigating circumstance, no argument nor excuse, that can be brought any longer. OPERATION RESTORE TRUST will direct Federal law enforcements Agents to take into custody pending trail, all senior members of this Criminal organization, (The Bush Administration). The interim Government will be temporarily administered by the Governors of the Fifty States and the districts. A date certain for a Constitutional Convention will be set for April 19th 2008, Patriots Day. Congress will be discharged from it's duties and all sitting members sent home for new elections in their respective states. All Bush Appointees including within the Supreme Court will be suspended from their duties pending reconfirmation by the newly elected Government. The intent and ability for this criminal organization to influence the internal deliberations of the courts is well documented. Never before in the history of Our Nation has such an insidiously aggressive cancer, reached it's strangling tentacles throughout every aspect of our government. It STOPS here and NOW. The Clock is ticking Congress, you have 21 days to act as charged in your oath of office. FAIL NOT!

[Marlyn]

Patriots Day, April 19th, anniversary of the Branch Davidian Waco fire and the Oklahoma City bombing.

[cmarotta99]

Are you inciting people to violently overthrow our duly elected officials, sir? You do realize that inciting violence is not protected free speech under our Constitution?

[leftLibertarian]

The Bush administration knowingly lied about the WMD in Iraq.

This is an impeachable offense punishable by death.

The Democratic leadership refuses to acknowledge this thus making them soft on the criminals Bush and Cheney.

[Marlyn]

The Democratic leadership DOES acknowledge this, but the BLUE DOG democrats like Dianne Feinstein do not follow. They are the criminals, and should be punished along with EVERY Republican.

[mommadona]

Absolutely.

War makes money, honey.

Blue Dogs like money.

Blue Dogs support war for the money.

It is THAT simple, and that sick.

Damn DLC.

DLC = War and "Business as Usual"

[ricchase]

Your article just illustrates, for me, what depths our once proud country has sunk to. The question now is, is it retrievable?

[pinkerman2]

Yes ricchase, our country is retrievable. YES WE CAN.

[argeec]

Americans should have nothing but contempt for the msm.
The biggest betrayal is the stories they don't put on the front page.

[LeonBNJ]

Like those at the dinner, when I saw that 2004 appearance I at first laughed. Soon though, I felt a lot of guilt and anger of his perverse presentation. The next day, all of the mainline media replayed the clip as humorus rather than the critizism and contempt it deseved. In comparision, Steve Corbert's appearance at one of these dinners was one of the best as to his real and biting humor, but that group made sure not to have anyone close to him for the next years dinner.
These dinners have long live out their function. I wish some who attend would not do so in the future and donate the monies instead to more appropiate charties such as for wounded soldiers.

[daddyG56]

When I first saw it, I got a sick feeling in my stomach that quickly spread to my soul and has never abated since. I recognized it for what it was.... a huge, leering wink to the very people who enabled the PR campaign that got us into this illegal and blatantly un-American war.

They'll all pay for it someday, somehow.

[PierreLeClerke]

So what will you do about it? Sit on your ass and complain? Heap sarcasim on those that will take action. Independence Square, Philadelphia, April 19th 9am. Be there and bring like minded Patriots. The time for talk is past. Our Constitution is a living breathing document, it requires us to act to protect it. We The People are the Arms and Legs of the Constitution, the backbone that supports the ideals, the Laws, the Freedoms imbodied in it's sacred text. It is by the sweet and blood of We The People and the diligent nertureing generations before us have suffered that has preserved our Nation to this point. despite the constant attempts made mostly from within, to once again return the people to be loyal subjects of the few. Remember, the greatest Leader must first be the Greatest Servant.

Your Country needs you now more than ever. How will you answer your grandchildren when they ask you what you did to RESTORE THE TRUST?