Taming the jokes as D.C. comedy time begins Manic comic Lewis Black gets Washington. A local boy who made it big on the Comedy Channel, Black knows that the city loves to laugh--just not at itself. So when he does his routine at the Radio & Television Correspondents' Association dinner on April 6, attended by the vice president and probably the president, he's going to skip the "F" word and be nice. He reasons that if questioners at President Bush 's Social Security town halls are being screened, "you have to tread very lightly because they are very thin skinned." Ditto for the other spring political galas, like the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, featuring Cedric the Entertainer . Black, whose new bio, Nothing's Sacred, takes shots at Bush, reviewed one joke with us. Remember Janet Jackson flashing her breast at the Super Bowl? he asks. "I've never seen the Congress, everybody respond so fast--and there was nothing on TV. If you saw a breast, then you should be working for the CIA because your eyes are so super." He adds: "It was the kind of moment a man like me waits for. And I saw nothing."
Haley the new Jimmy? With the 2008 front-runners unable to wow the GOP and kill early presidential competition the way George W. Bush did four years ago, Republicans are sizing up newbies like Govs. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Mike Huckabee of Arkansas. This month's hottie is Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour . Yup, the very same sweet-talking pol who used to chair the Republican National Committee wants to run for president, say friends who give him fair odds. His strengths: As a former Reagan political aide, lobbyist, and GOP boss from 1993 to 1997, he's got a fat Rolodex filled with names of backers and donors. The Yazoo City, Miss., native is also very popular with his folk and even the national media, who never tire of his southern sayings--or snacks and drinks in his office. The drawbacks: He's up for re-election a year before the presidential race, and he doesn't have the national following of front-runners like Sen. John McCain and ex-New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani . But pals say those hurdles are no different from the ones cleared by another obscure southern governor-- Jimmy Carter .
Haley the new Jimmy? With the 2008 front-runners unable to wow the GOP and kill early presidential competition the way George W. Bush did four years ago, Republicans are sizing up newbies like Govs. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Mike Huckabee of Arkansas. This month's hottie is Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour . Yup, the very same sweet-talking pol who used to chair the Republican National Committee wants to run for president, say friends who give him fair odds. His strengths: As a former Reagan political aide, lobbyist, and GOP boss from 1993 to 1997, he's got a fat Rolodex filled with names of backers and donors. The Yazoo City, Miss., native is also very popular with his folk and even the national media, who never tire of his southern sayings--or snacks and drinks in his office. The drawbacks: He's up for re-election a year before the presidential race, and he doesn't have the national following of front-runners like Sen. John McCain and ex-New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani . But pals say those hurdles are no different from the ones cleared by another obscure southern governor-- Jimmy Carter .
Yes, it's serious
Sorry, madam first lady, but the relationship between your daughter Jenna Bush and former White House aide Henry Hager is starting to look a lot more serious than you think. In fact, some of their friends are whispering of a White House wedding. But we're probably getting too far down the road. Just a couple of weeks after Laura Bush said Hager, 26, "is not a serious boyfriend," the cuties continue to be seen together. At a college basketball game in Washington last week, for example, a photographer caught Jenna's and Hager's arms knotted. A friend reveals that the relationship "is very real."
Easy off, easy on
President Bush wants his presidential library to be adjacent to an interstate highway so that it's easy for visitors to come, according to associates. We're told that W, who recently helped Bill Clinton open his library in Little Rock, Ark., believes having his library close to a major highway will attract crowds. Schools near such highways are Southern Methodist University in Dallas and Baylor University in Waco. Word is both Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove and Bush pal and former Commerce Secretary Don Evans are working on the project.
advertisement
