1009 Laura Bush does us (librarians) proud

You can watch Laura Bush, the world's prettiest and most famous librarian, do her comedy routine at the White House Correspondents dinner at C-SPAN. Forward the tape to about 1 hour and 14 minutes, unless you want to watch all the other stuff, which includes some footage from other dinners and scenes of people milling around.

President Bush begins to give his speech and gets interrupted by his wife when he starts to retell a joke that went flat the first time he told it. It's all scripted, but the audience loved it, especially the "Desperate Housewife" routine and the President retiring at 9 p.m.

"George always says he's delighted to come to these press dinners. Baloney. He's usually in bed by now. I'm not kidding. I said to him the other day, 'George, if you really want to end tyranny in the world, you're going to have to stay up later.' I am married to the president of the United States, and here's our typical evening: Nine o'clock, Mr. Excitement here is sound asleep, and I'm watching 'Desperate Housewives' -- with Lynne Cheney. Ladies and gentlemen, I am a desperate housewife."

· "But George and I are complete opposites -- I'm quiet, he's talkative, I'm introverted, he's extroverted. I can pronounce 'nuclear'. The amazing thing, however, is that George and I were just meant to be. I was the librarian who spent 12 hours a day in the library, yet somehow I met George."

Laura Bush should be the best PR tool for libraries in a long while, but because of ALA's anti-administration attitude and leftward tilt, no one will take advantage of it.

Update: I noticed at Gail Heriot's piece at The Right Coast she noted that at a pre-dinner reception "a group of journalists were speculating about whether a President would ever dare break the tradition and not show up for the annual feast. The consensus was that he would never, never, never do so without his paying dearly. The attendance of the President is the outward and visible sign of MSM power." Well, maybe by having his wife give the speech, he sort of did the unthinkable and won their approval too? Maybe Bush beat 'em at their own game.