Laura Bush, Desperate Housewife?

Posted on May 2, 2005

Laura Bush's speech at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner Saturday night drew lots of laughs when she described herself as a "Desperate Housewife" and gently poked fun at her husband and his friends:

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. I mean, if those women on that show think they're desperate, they oughta be with George.
One night, after George went to bed, Lynne Cheney, Condi Rice, Karen Hughes and I went to Chippendale's. I wouldn't even mention it except Ruth Ginsberg and Sandra Day O'Connor saw us there. I won't tell you what happened, but Lynne's Secret Service codename is now "Dollar Bill."
But George and I are complete opposites — I'm quiet, he's talkative, I'm introverted, he's extroverted, I can pronounce nuclear —

Joke writer Landon Parvin has written comedy for political figures from Ronald Reagan to Vernon Jordan.

In Bush's case, her routine was her husband's idea. Tradition calls for the president to deliver one-liners to the 2,500 White House correspondents and guests at the Gridiron dinner in the Washington Hilton ballroom, but Bush has now done that three times. His wife agreed to step in, then sat down with Parvin and Susan Whitson, her press secretary, to work on ideas.
Playing off Desperate Housewives, the racy hit U.S. television show, was a natural, even though Whitson said in a brief interview after the dinner that Bush had never actually seen it. Whitson said the first lady had heard about the characters and plot from her twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara, who are fans, and was planning to watch the entire first season on a DVD she has at home.

The word is, Mrs. Bush was a hit, and upstaged Cedric the Entertainer completely. And that's what a comedy writer likes to hear.