Laura Bush, South Park Conservative?

Last night Ann Althouse blogged on Laura Bush's "surprisingly risqué" turn at the White House Correspondents Dinner, and this morning I saw the clip on This Week. I can't find a complete transcript, but if you read this and this you'll pretty much get it all.

"Nine o'clock and Mr. Excitement here is in bed, and I am watching 'Desperate Housewives' — with Lynne Cheney. Ladies and gentlemen, I am a desperate housewife."

"I'm proud of George," she told the ballroom. "He's learned a lot about ranching since that first year he tried to milk a horse." Pause. "It was a male horse." Pandemonium ensued...

UPDATE: Here's the video. (Hat tip: Say Anything.) And here's a complete transcript (hat tip: Daily Pundit).

Because I had just read Frank Rich's column about the new book South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias, by Brian C. Anderson of the conservative think tank The Manhattan Institute, I was able to put Mrs. Bush's remarks in a context. (I don't share Frank Rich's worldview. I do read him.)

Nothing this White House does strikes me as off-the-cuff or uncalculated in its impact. The down-home raunchiness, the perfectly placed pop-culture reference -- I suspect these are part of a just-American-folks, suburban-outreach strategy, of a seamless piece with George's demurral that "faith is a personal issue" in last week's press conference. "South Park" is both foul-mouthed and anti-PC. By embracing it, conservatives show that they're not succumbing to their own right-wing version of nanny-state political correctness. Guess what! We're grown-ups. We have a life below the belt. We can take a joke -- and make one. We are not out to censor harmless fun. Just another correction in their great tightrope balancing dance between the James Dobson and Dennis Miller constituencies.

- amba

Comments

[Birkel]

Thanks for the E-mail. I'm glad I'm not the only one who saw it this way.

Did you catch the weird "wet kiss" in Rich's piece. It was weird because Harry Reid used the "wet kiss" construction regarding the filibuster issue.

What was that about?

[amba]

Yes - Harry Reid's wet kiss is here. It must just be an involuntary meme that's going around, like an STD. Between that and the horse thing ... well, it must be spring.

[Birkel]

You know that if you keep writing stuff that interests me I'm gonna become a stalker. Right?

I mean just so we're clear and all.

I may have to stop by regularly. Darn it. I don't have that much free time!! I blame you (and others) for my downfall!!

See you tomorrow.