Tom Frank on Bush's "sense of humor"

[Cocoa]

http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=express&s=frank082304

Somewhere along the way, George W. Bush got a reputation for being a cutup. People said it came from his mother. Dubya apparently agreed, since he wrote in his 2000 campaign memoir, A Charge to Keep, "My mother and I are the quippers of the family, sharp-tongued and irreverent." (It's enjoyable to imagine him dictating this.) The media thought so too: "They both have rapier wits," Judy Woodruff informed CNN viewers in August 2000. This perception apparently spread far and wide. The Herald of Glasgow weighed in from across the sea, noting that Bush had managed to combine his father's political skill "with his mother's instinctive warmth and sense of self-deprecating humor."

How nice. And yet, how odd. Dubya--instinctively warm? His humor--self-deprecating? The wit--rapier? Bush had clearly inherited plenty of his mother's qualities, but warmth and wit--well, hadn't Barbara shown a certain restraint in expressing these gifts? The situation was confusing. Was Dubya actually funny? Or had the media's repeated pronouncements that he was funny become self-fulfilling?

Then as now, the question of whether Dubya is funny begins with his mother. After all, as we've been told so often, his kind-hearted sense of humor comes from Barbara. This side of the former first lady has been on display since 1988, when her husband was elected president, and Barbara emerged as a gruff-but-loving grandma, full of wit and wisdom. Barbara has continued to put forward that image during her son's presidency. Last year, for instance, The Hartford Courant reported that during an appearance in Connecticut, she delivered a speech "peppered ... with jokes and insights," including lines such as: "If you're tense, do exactly what it says on the Aspirin bottle. Take two pills and keep away from children." It's lovely--and maybe it explains a lot about her son.

The only trouble is that once we put aside the loving-grandma jokes, we arrive at another Barbara Bush, the one known to her family as "The Enforcer" ("with a mixture of fear and affection," according to Newsweek). This is the one who reportedly terrified her husband's White House staff and is said to hold grudges for decades. (Her 1994 memoirs apparently required the removal of a few potentially libelous portions.) The press calls her "tart-tongued." Even in puff pieces like a Newsweek profile from last fall, this other Barbara keeps wanting to come out and offer some thoughts. On, say, her cloying hosts: "They thanked me three times, when once would have been fine." On a gift corsage: "I hate flowers. Waste of money." On a Florida execution: "I'm sure Jeb was torn, but that did not bother me." And so on.

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[mark11727]

1. I remember articles from the seventies and eighties...

...that tough-talkin' gramma was always an uber-bitch.

[stevielizard]

2. "My husband Al and I were out to dinner," Judy laughed...

"and that funny Junior came over to us and did some blue material- he was very funny- without crossing the line of course."