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Jewish World Review May 9, 2005 / 30 Nissan, 5765 Laura Bush: No laughing matter By Diana West
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Lovely Laura Bush: yuk-yuk, or just yuck?
The event under consideration — the first lady's monologue at the White
House Correspondents' Dinner — weighs in alongside flotsam and jetsam,
but the question has hefty ramifications. It may be the ultimate "litmus
test," a chance to reveal something more vital than mere politics, and
certainly less easily defined: the state of public taste and judgment.
This should come as something of a relief to those among us weary of the
well-worn Red State, Blue State divide. Better to carve up the world
between those who found Laura Bush's jokes funny, and those who didn't.
Or, rather, those who found Laura Bush's jokes an ornament to the White
House, and those who wished a grownup had happened by the East Wing to
yank them from the script and throw in some nifty new adventures of Barney.
Why? When a woman happens to be first lady, "funny" at any expense isn't
part of the job description, not when "funny" comes at the expense of
her husband's image. And I don't mean "image" as in public relations
product. I mean "image" as in public symbol. World leader.
Commander-in-chief. In these explosive times, with tens of thousands of
soldiers under arms. Which is a sobering thought, or should be.
In other words, feet of clay are fine, but there's no reason to bring
the barnyard into it. Whoopi Goldberg steered a Democratic fund-raiser
into the gutter last summer with a crude pun on the Bush family name,
prompting Republican accusations that John Kerry didn't "share the same
values" as the rest of America.
But what about the rest of the Bush family? Laura Bush is no stand-up
comic, but that's all the more reason certain sorts of "jokes" should be
automatically, reflexively, unquestioningly ruled out for her public
delivery. Jokes that link the president's hands and the underside of a
horse, for instance. Jokes that create a regrettably indelible image of
the first lady, the vice president's wife, the secretary of state, and a
Supreme Court justice together at Chippendale's, waving dollars bills at
male strippers. Even jokes that make a "Mommie Dearest" out of former
first lady Barbara Bush. Such material won't pull more than a PG rating
these days, but a first lady in any era should be mature enough to avoid
all "adult" material.
Once upon a time, such discretion was a no-brainer, an obvious rule that
needed no articulation, much less conscious thought. No more — which is
why there seem to be more people, including conservatives, applauding
Mrs. Bush than sitting on their hands. We live in a society that prizes
the guffaw above all, where "lighten up" is a commandment and anything
really does go. But it goes for no reason. That is, I can think of no
reason to motivate a first lady to mock a president in front of a White
House press corps that makes a career of doing so on a daily basis.
"George," she said, "if you really want to end tyranny in the world,
you're going to have to stay up later." The hilarity of her moment
passes, but something has changed.
Exactly what it is that has changed is difficult to explain. After all,
the whole thing was "just" a joke. But Laura Bush is not Joan Rivers.
Splashing into the media mainstream to join the derisive fun, decoupling
fateful words from mortal purpose, is a risky proposition for the wife
of a superpower leader. One day, "ending tyranny" is Mr. Bush's raison
d'etre; the next day, it is Mrs. Bush's punch line.
The day after that — who knows? The lingering air of uncertainty is
hardly worth the media snickers, even if the first lady did manage to
"humanize" her husband, as The New York Times so admiringly put it.
Certainly, she knocked him down some pegs, which in our age is much the
same thing. But imagine other presidencies, particularly in wartime.
Would we have said Eleanor humanized FDR by doing a stand-up routine
about Franklin always "fearing fear itself"? Or that Pat Nixon humanized
Richard by wondering where the heck the peace was that Dick said was "at
hand"? Or that Nancy Reagan humanized Ron by teasing him about tearing
down that old wall?
"Lighten up," they say, in a programmed response. No thanks. A
laugh-track nation doesn't really offer serious comic relief.
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JWR contributor Diana West is a columnist and editorial writer for the Washington Times. Comment by clicking here. © 2005, Diana West |
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