The
first George W.

In case you missed it amid the commotion over White House
indictments, Iraq death tolls and wacky Supreme Court nominations,
President Bush on Friday took a revolutionary new approach
to getting a laugh.

Speaking in Norfolk, Virginia on the war against terror —
you know, the one those Iraqis launched against us when they
Pearl Harbored the World Trade Center — the Commander-in-Chief
who posed in a military flightsuit in the short-fiction classic
"Mission Accomplished" invoked the name of the Father
of All Presidents, George Washington.

"I
call him the first George W."

(Laughter and applause.)

(And much gagging.)

(And spinning in graves.)

"I cannot tell a lie" … about uranium or National
Guard hijinks or who leaked what in a twisted tale of political
vengeance.

I’d bet my last WMD that if George Washington ever received
an intelligence briefing titled "King George determined
to strike in Colonies" he would have cut short his vacation
clearing brush from around the old cherry
tree.

The morale of the story for our chuckling, self-styled "war
president": The current George W. should avoid likening
himself to the man who led our nation to independence and
helped create the honest, virtuous America whose fate has
fallen into shaky hands. The comparison is not flattering.

BONUS Humor Gazette classic:

Bush
drops a comic bomb — March 26, 2004