Bush 'tried to milk a horse'
2005-05-01 09:02
Washington - US First Lady Laura Bush cracked risque jokes and ribbed her husband and his family at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner late Saturday.
President George W Bush began to recount a joke at the annual event, where US leaders are expected to show their humorous side, when he was "interrupted" by Laura Bush.
"I've been attending these dinners for years and just quietly sitting there. Well, I've got a few things I want to say for a change," she said, to great applause.
"George always says he's delighted to come to these press dinners. Baloney! He's usually in bed by now," she said. "I said to him the other day, George, if you really want to end tyranny in the world, you're gonna have to stay up later."
Laura Bush joked that on a typical evening the president is asleep by 21:00, "and I'm watching (the racy television show) Desperate Housewives."
The first lady went on to quip that one night she went out to Chippendales, a male strip bar, with vice-president Dick Cheney's wife Lynne, secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and top Bush aide Karen Hughes.
"I wouldn't even mention it, except (Supreme Court Justices) Ruth Ginsberg and Sandra Day O'Connor saw us there," she said. "I won't tell you what happened. But Lynn's secret service code name is now 'dollar bill.'"
Tried to milk a horse
Laura Bush also joked about the president's mother Barbara Bush. "People think she's a sweet grandmotherly aunt Bea type. She's actually more like (fictional Mafia capo) Don Corleone."
She said that that her husband actually knew little about ranching when they bought their ranch in Crawford, Texas.
"I'm proud of George. He's learned a lot about ranching since that first year, when he tried to milk the horse. What's worse, it was a male horse," she said.
The president now often spends time at the ranch clearing brush and cutting trails. "George's answer to any problem at the ranch is to cut it down with a chainsaw. Which I think is why he and Cheney and (Defense Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld get along so well."
Celebrity guests at the event included Hollywood actors Richard Gere and Jane Fonda, and rap star LL Cool J.