The White House Correspondents Dinner

Crude comedienne Wanda Sykes


I would like to make a few simple observations about the White House Correspondents dinner the other night. I'll keep it short because, frankly, it doesn't merit that much labor. I have always considered it a tacky affair, where the President has to waste his time trying to crack jokes for the benefit of a pack of tacky White House reporters and the usual collection of "stars" in attendance, you know, folks like "Ludacris".

First of all, President Obama's joke about Dick Cheney was over the line. Period.

As for Wanda Sykes, all I can say is that when you contract Wanda Sykes, you get Wanda Sykes. Who is the numbscull that lined her up-the same guy that sent Air Force One over Lower Manhattan? Suffice to say her comments about Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh were tasteless, crude and not worthy to be told in the presence of an American president. Where I come from, there are certain things one doesn't joke about, you know, like Auschwitz, the Holocaust, Pearl Harbor and 9-11. People like Wanda Sykes never got the memo.

Obama, on the other hand, thought they were funny enough to give up a few yuks. (It's on the tape.) Then, when cooler heads prevailed the next morning (or when conservatives called them out), White House Press Spokesman (and real stand-up comedian) Robert Gibbs did his usual stumblebum routine in conceding that the jokes were sort of....bad.

You know, when you sponsor or hire someone who offends people, apologies are usually in order. If conservative Republicans had thrown out jokes like these about Democrats, the left would be howling for apologies, resignations, firings, and special prosecutors. What if I had made some joke about wishing that Wanda Sykes came down with testicular cancer? What do you think would have happened? (Nothing actually because no one would know.)

Can we save some taxpayer money by simply doing away with these affairs?