Bush, Rove Joke About White House Felonies. Reporters Laugh.

[babylonsister]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/6425

Bush, Rove Joke About White House Felonies. Reporters Laugh.
by RJ Eskow | Mar 29 2007

I have a lot of sympathy for David Gregory, who was pressed into a bad "comedy" routine with Karl Rove at the Radio & Correspondents' Dinner tonight. Rove had already cracked a lame joke about Patrick Fitzgerald, while mangling his first name as "Peter." Then he and Gregory went on to "rap" with the bad comedian hosting the event. (Video here, courtesy Atrios.)

Bear in mind that the real subject of Rove's humor was the conviction of a senior White House official for committing a felony while serving this Administration. Make that three felonies. Proven, beyond a reasonable doubt. That would be three felonies committed by someone on Rove's team.

Three felonies that involved using journalists to destroy a woman's career, to hurt her husband for telling the truth.

Ha-ha, the reporters laughed gamely.

Meanwhile, new evidence is emerging that Rove was directly involved in the firing of Federal prosecutors. That directly contradicts what this same Administration told this same group of correspondents.

David Gregory's a fine reporter, but his uncomfortable routine doesn't just illustrate the impropriety of joking around with people who may have committed serious crimes. It also demonstrates how inappropriate it is to hold these events with an Administration that deceived a nation into war - a deception that was enabled in large part by the same chatty familiarity being displayed at tonight's dinner.

Here's the bottom line: The widespread loss of life in Iraq is due in no small part to the slipshod workmanship of many of the journalists at this event, and their coziness with the those now in power. Displaying that coziness while our fighting men and women are still dying over there is in bad taste. (And let's not forget the loss of innocent Iraqi lives, either.)

more...

[fooj]

1. I found their "schtick" offensive.

I felt as if Little Lord Pissypants and Rove gave us all the BIG F*CK YOU last night. I was appalled. It made me angry.

[babylonsister]

8. Me, too, fooj. The writer also; I'm glad DUers seem as offended as I

felt.

[unpossibles]

2. the name thing was weird, yet typical

I think he did it on purpose. Not only do you not forget the name of the person who has interviewed you multiple times, but to mess up his name, and to joke around about it in general, shows Rove's contempt for the case, for America, and for the law.

[lefador]

6. 6+ years of Rove giving the middle finger to 90% of Americans...

...why would he stop now? He is an unelected official with pretty much no oversight or bound on his powers. Absolut power, corrupts absolutely. In any other Western country he would have been frogmarched long ago, but as long as Americans keep on paying the extortion of the 20% of koolaid drinkers that Rove commands he will keep on giving us the middle finger. He is simply stated, a cancer in the American system. His genius comes from the fact that the founding fathers did not anticipate the degeneration of this country to the point of produncing such a souless power hungry creature. I.e. they expected the checks and balances system to be used as a human political system. Rove is not human, and thus has managed to bypass a lot of the builtin safeties in the system...


6yrs ago I made a point of this Rove fuck, and I was dismissed by my friends. Now they are fairly aware, but I guess it is too late.

God/Allah/Buddah/Tao/Vishnu... help us.

[calimary]

18. Welcome to DU! Glad you're here. And you were certainly correct

about rove. Anyone who was paying attention back then could see, or at least suspect what was up.

I myself did NOT know a lot back then - certainly not as much as I think I do now. But I did know enough not to be smooth-talked by his campaign or fall for what I felt at the time were his lies and disingenuousness. I also knew enough to get this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I saw bush come out and claim his Supreme Court anointing with all those American flags behind him and the Democratic leader of the Texas legislature introducing him (to show how magnanimously nonpartisan he was). I'll never forget that moment. I remember feeling the hair raise on the back of my neck, too, and something in my brain said "uh-oh... here's trouble." And then, I remember thinking - "don't know why I'm feeling this really strong sense of dread, but I hope I'm wrong."

[NoFederales]

3. Very inappropriate to continue the event, in fact, get rid of the

presser at the WH, too. Stock lies, unseemly "journalistic" conduct, for what? Prestige? For that warm feel-good recognition by a "higher authority"? For a few yucks? At whose expense?

I swear America is getting stupid-er every day. Some guy on radio used to yell out, "Wake up America!" Those are my sentiments when I see crap like Rove and Bush cracking smart-ass insults to the public.

NoFederales

[NJCher]

4. completely and totally inappropriate

Oh yeah, make no mistake about it, messing up with the name was a way to show contempt. It was a way to say how unimportant Patrick Fitzgerald is in the eyes of Karl Rove. What's probably most interesting about the "slip" is why Karl Rove feels the need to tell Patrick Fitzgerald he's unimportant.

I saw the dance routine this morning on television. My husband said, "Rove is trying to pretend he's a rapper but he comes off more like he's doing the Charleston." Whatever. It was not funny and it was totally confusing to me to see David Gregory laughing and joking with these scumbags. I am in 100 per cent agreement that it is inappropriate for the so-called fourth estate to be cavorting with people currently in the office. Wrong, wrong, wrong, so wrong.



Cher

[EVDebs]

5. Not as funny as youtube's "What's So Funny" the last time broadcasters dinner propped up *

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0TnqUlB4Gg

[solara]

7. I totally agree with you..I found the pics of Rove dancing

and laughing at the TV & Radio Correspondents dinner to be highly disturbing.

Rove is an obscenity as are all of those who have aided and abetted the war crimes of this administration. I am still amazed at the lack of outrage when, at another one of these events a few years ago, Bush "searched" for WMDs to uproarious laughter from the audience of JOURNALISTS. Hundreds of thousands have died, but he has so little regard for human life that he can just go for the laugh and what's worse.. he gets it. Bush just 'kills' at these affairs.

Their behavior last night was more of the same. Maybe they will be just as successful in subverting the idea that our JoD should not be politicized. If the President jokes about it, there can't be too much to worry about. Meanwhile, the PRESS applauds Rove's "what, me worry" antics.

Bush, Rove and their cohorts are arrogant, callous criminals with a twisted sense of entitlement. The press supports them in this and deserve to share in their fate. As I said elsewhere, to see any of these war criminals in public, without manacles, is shameful.


INVESTIGATE IMPEACH INDICT INCARCERATE :patriot:

[Dr Fate]

9. And the press PRETENDS to wonder why we have zero trust & respect for them.

Grim silence-or at best, tepid, polite applause would have been the proper & acceptable response to this dog & pony show.

[Cameron27]

10. The media has been complicit and they know it.

Instead of being ashamed, they continue to play silly games with the criminals. Yuck, yuck.

[leftyladyfrommo]

11. I thought it was extremely offensive. n/t

[Tellurian]

12. The moral majority has become the AMoral Majority..

Very disturbing indeed- The Bush Administration flaunting their crimes against the American people and Humanity, acting as if their joking around were but "spoofing" innocuous events highlighting their foibles. When in reality, their roguishness is poking fun at the paralysis of American citizens and the world for allowing the carnage and economic distress they've unleashed going unfettered.

Our country is a bloody disgrace to mankind.

[grace0418]

13. Same thing as the "Where are the WMDs?" skit they did a few years back.

It's all just sooooooooooo fucking hilarious, isn't it?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

14. the WH originally reported that he was too busy to attend.

I guess this is Rove's effort to "fix" the problems with the media ad get them back under control.

pity the MSM is so effin gullible and willing to sell its collective, corpserate soul.

[Morgana LaFey]

15. they laughed because they are "membes of the court"

that was the description given them in something I read here yesterday. I thought it as appropriate as anything else I'd EVER read about the Washington pundits and so-called journlists. The Propaganda Corps.

[warren pease]

17. That's right, they're members of the same club

And they "get" the joke because it's not on them, but on the rest of the world that has to suffer and die under the giant thumb of these satanic androids.

All's well in corporate suck-up land, we're all pals in realpolitik, and screw the poor proles who don't get the joke. They don't count anyway. Let's all cackle as Karl does his hideous white boy thing, 'cause he's one of us and we're so very special because we "get" the joke, and because Karl has come down from the mountain to be with us on this special night.

Actually, you could make a good case that this pack of stenographers and cheerleaders has caused more pure misery here and throughout the world than BushCo alone would ever have been capable of. By sanctioning any administration lie, no matter how ridiculous, while smugly discounting anything contradictory, they poison the public mind and create a fiction around the white house that protects the felons inside behind a wall of media-fabricated credibility. They create reality, and they created the Bush presidency.

He was a thoroughly incompetent idiot on September 10, 2001, just as he was the day after. But these creators of the American myth took this vile little man and elevated him to the stature of statesman and genuine American hero -- never mind that he spent the day flying all over the country to hide his sorry ass from a hijacked jet with his name on it, which of course didn't exist. But the country fell right in line, not because he had suddenly become a brave genius, but because he was the subject of non-stop deification in all media -- TV, radio, papers, magazines, even the web -- a clean sweep for the big lie. Anything outside that fantasy was considered unamerican. Hooray for the war president.

So they continue to laugh as they bask in the glow of the creatures they made. It's fine for them, insulated as they are from the way life is spiraling rapidly downward in this country. They got a pass on life because they have the right skills -- great hair, white teeth, a good profile, camera-friendly eyes, willing to crush any remaining principles to advance their careers. That they're hopelessly incompetent as reporters and "journalists" isn't the point; they're telegenic, so they get the job. And because they're incapable of sorting fact from fiction, and because they always play nice to assure continued access to the "important people," they're willing to elevate a dangerous idiot to a position of high esteem and completely ignore the gruesome results of their creature's malevolent meddling.

Damn that liberal media anyway.


wp

[peaches2003]

24. Press

They are the court jesters to the Bush Adm.

[cassiepriam]

16. Remember Bush looking for WMD under his desk as a comedy skit in front of laughing reporters?

I was horrified.

But it told the story of how little the Bushafia cares
about the loss of human life and limb. And how the media
plays along with it all.

[Supersedeas]

21. all of it is just a joke to enjoy over cocktails.

[cassiepriam]

23. Yes, it is quite amusing to them that the masses were so easily duped.

We all are chumps to them.

[byronius]

19. It was a grim event. Dachau humor. Every single person at that event

who clapped and laughed mocked the cause of life. It was Darkness of Souls. I was horrified, sickened, enraged. Demons. Reminded me of the movie 'They Live'.

We need to turn those smiles upside down.

[chieftain]

20. Great post !! All of it is accurate, and the last graph screams

the truth concerning the news medias' complicity and culpability in the Iraq travesty.

[ComerPerro]

22. My mom kept telling me that the way I write, and with my interset in current events and politics,

I should have been a journalist.

I point to fuckheads like the WH press corps to show her why I have no respect for journalism.

[Skittles]

25. more indecent than any porn film, that's for sure

:puke: