Glenn goes to Washington – White House Correspondence Dinner

Pictures from Glenn's trip to DC...

GLENN: So then the President arrives. He is positively robotic. I watch him because, you know, I was seated waaaay off to the side, which I was actually thankful for. I didn't want to be anywhere near the center where it was nothing but NBC and GE employees.

STU: Really?

GLENN: Yeah, I don't know if they were the new halogen green lights but they were all lit up and everything. What a bunch of anyway, so I'm off to the side. So I could see the President and the first lady, you know, off to the side of the stage as they're getting ready, and we weren't that far away. I mean, it was probably from here to the other studios away from the President and, yeah, I could see him backstage with the secret service, and he wasn't necessarily smiling. They introduced him, and the minute he hit that light, big smile came on his face, and the minute he stepped out of those lights or they stopped the cameras, the smile went away. He was taking pictures with kids and he's like, Mr. President, you've got to take a picture of the winners and he would smile, and stop. I mean, he was robotic. He was very, very good at his speech. He's an effective speaker, he's a very good speaker. I thought he was funny.

STU: See, I haven't seen him perform the comedy too well, but who

GLENN: I thought he was for a President I thought he did very I thought he did very well.

STU: I thought the funniest part was when Wanda Sykes went into that whole routine about Malia and she just went wrecking the President's daughter and was talking about

GLENN: No, no, she did that to Sarah Palin's daughter. No, it wasn't the President's daughter.

STU: Oh.

GLENN: You might have been confused because remember she did the whole routine on Joe Biden's daughter. You know, that

STU: Ripped her, ripped her.

GLENN: No, no, wait, she didn't. No, no, she did it on Sarah Palin's daughter.
STU: But I thought the funny part was when he was like, you know who I want to just die of kidney failure?

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: Is Rachel Maddow. I mean, that stupid

GLENN: No, she no, she didn't do that, no, uh uh. She did that on Rush Limbaugh. I tell you, when she did because Todd Palin was there and was sitting at a table behind me.

STU: Classy, classy.

GLENN: Todd Palin came up. He was very nice. He's a normal human being. And I said, Todd, don't destroy this is before. Don't destroy your family, don't destroy your family. Are you guys strong enough as a family to weather this slime? And he said, "I think so. I think so." And I said, just be really careful, man. This is just bad, this is bad stuff here. And he said, "Oh, I know, I know." But he was very optimistic and he was a good guy. And normal, just normal. And when she started in on Sarah Palin and, you know, abstinence, I thought, what are you doing? What are you doing? Is this changing the dialogue in Washington that was so promised? Is that what it is? Because this is a change.

I had a couple that won't be named because there were reporters, but a couple of journalists come up to me afterwards and said, you came on an interesting year. And I said, did I? And he said, yeah, you witnessed a new low and a new standard. He said, never has this happened like this before. Imus had done stuff, but it was again against the President.

STU: Yeah, because that's the tradition.

GLENN: That's the tradition.

STU: You are always wrecking, and even Colbert was but it was wrecking the President. And even though some people thought it went over the line, it was still

GLENN: Kidney failure? Kidney failure? Really?

STU: Well, the thing is, though, it's a comedian and it's not like the President the President wasn't

GLENN: I was thrilled. If you saw because apparently I read a one reporter said that they cut to me and I was stone faced during that. I wasn't laughing. But somebody else, they saw me on C Span and they cut away and I was smiling, leaning over talking to my wife. I was smiling. I said, "These people are so stupid. They've just written my comedy tour."

STU: (Laughing).

GLENN: If this is the standard, oh, oh, I can't wait to go on and do comedy on stage. If this is the standard. Wanda Sykes, boy, I mean, I'm torn because I'd love you to be able to stand by my side and defend me when I list the people that I'd like to see get kidney failure.

STU: That would be hilarious. And Barack Obama would be laughing the whole time because he loves those jokes.

GLENN: Well, he might not hear it because I believe Barack Obama may be the 20th hijacker! (Laughing).
STU: Oh, you, oh, you, don't you do oh, my. Oh, my God because you know what? Liberals love when you call Barack Obama a terrorist. They love it!

GLENN: He's the 20th hijacker! He didn't show up because he was too busy embezzling money with ACORN!

STU: (Laughing).

GLENN: (Laughing). Oh, man, I hope Wanda Sykes gets kidney has kidney failure. So make sure you join us on our comedy tour, it's our Common Sense comedy tour. Tickets are still available. Be a lot of great jokes happening.

STU: Oh, it's going to be good, it's going to be really good.

GLENN: You know, but hey, make sure you join us. It's let's see. Denver's sold out, Phoenix, San Diego, Kansas City, Houston, and Richmond. Tickets are going fast. Grab them. Encore performance is happening on June 11th. June 4th we're going to be in over 450 movie theatres nationwide. Make sure you grab your tickets. Our Common Sense comedy tour. Be there. You know, unless you're wishing somebody was having kidney failure.

STU: (Laughing). That's unbelievable, how we were ever in a comedian that doesn't have a TV show anymore.

David Feherty shouldn't get pass for tasteless joke - but neither should Wanda Sykes

Double Standard - If a Conservative Made Jokes Even Half This Tasteless They Would Be Crucified By The Media!!

Simon/Pool

Comedian Wanda Sykes has President Obama in stitches as she performs at Saturday's White House Correspondents' dinner in D.C.

Mouths That Roared… Tastelessly!!  -  Since when are jokes about 9/11 and death okay??  It seems that the answer is when they are aimed at conservatives.

What did you think of the jokes made by David Feherty and Wanda Sykes?

Their comments were tasteless, and both should apologize.

Feherty deserves punishment, but Sykes' comments were fine considering the setting.

It was all in good fun - neither should be reprimanded.

Here is what David Feherty, a golf guy who poses no threat to the memory of Lenny Bruce, wrote in a Dallas magazine recently:

"If you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Osama Bin Laden, there's a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and Bin Laden would be strangled to death."

Not funny. An old joke, tastelessly retold. Feherty of CBS - who once wrote a book called "Somewhere in Ireland a Village is Missing an Idiot" - is drawing fire because of it. But you have to wonder how a similar joke might have played at the White House Correspondents' dinner on Saturday night, as long as it was about a Republican.

Because here are a couple of jokes Wanda Sykes wrote and then delivered to that crowd:

"You know, you might want to look into this, [President Obama], because I think maybe Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker, but he was just so strung out on OxyContin he missed his flight. ...

"Rush Limbaugh hopes the country fails? I hope his kidneys fail, how 'bout that?"

Somehow Ms. Sykes got laughs with this material, and draws no fire. It is all supposed to be about the setting, or so we are told. President Obama was there, the dinner is always the Washington version of a Friars Club Roast, just without the Sopranos language.

So Sykes, a comedian, gets a pass because of where she was, and whom she was talking about. And maybe who she is. David Feherty, who fancies himself a bit of a comic himself, doesn't, at least not so far. As always, the rules on all this change from day to day like baseball's strike zone.

This isn't about condoning what Feherty wrote. It sure isn't about running interference for Limbaugh. He has become the clown at the right-wing circus and has had the bully pulpit for a long time, not just banging away at people who think like President Obama - or Wanda Sykes for that matter - for a long time.

Limbaugh is another gasbag in this country who has gotten rich on meanness, and so if he is getting a taste of his own medicine now, prescription or otherwise, that is probably just swell with the people he has trampled on the way to the buffet table. Then the bank.

But what if Limbaugh, white talk show host, goes on the air and says that Sykes, black comedian, is about half-a-terrorist and that, oh by the way, he hopes she dies? Is he allowed to say he's just an entertainer, and tell everybody to lighten up?

Feherty? He has been condemned by representatives from Pelosi and Reid and even the PGA Tour. CBS issued a statement that said, "Feherty's column for a Dallas magazine is an unacceptable attempt at humor and is not in any way condoned."

A poll was taken by the Daily News… 68% of the participants said both Feherty and Sykes’ comments were tasteless and both should apologize!

Double Standard - If a Conservative Made Jokes Even Half This Tasteless They Would Be Crucified By The Media!!

Updated Monday, May 11th 2009, 8:34 AM