Everyone's a ridda bit lacist

Even Wanda:

Finally, a mushy liberal has the balls to speak the truth

Joan Walsh, who isn't exactly known for being a firebrand, puts the Wanda Sykes/Rush Limbaugh flap in its proper context (emphasis mine):

Sure it was off-color and, um, slightly out there – but that’s the point. Or it used to be. Even if I didn’t already love Sykes, my point of view would be: Once a barely elected president who started a devastating war on false pretenses can joke about those pretenses at that same dinner (Remember Bush looking behind sofas for WMDs? ) it’s hard to ever be offensive again.

There are other wince-worthy examples we never hear about: At the 1970 Gridiron dinner, according to "Nixon's Piano," by Kenneth O'Reilly, the not yet disgraced GOP president Richard Nixon and his scandal-dogged VP Spiro Agnew did a classy racist interpretive piece. "What about this 'southern strategy' we hear so often?" Nixon asked Agnew. "Yes suh, Mr. President," Agnew replied in what was known as “dialect,” adding "Ah agree with you completely on yoah southern strategy." While Nixon played a variety of songs on piano, Agnew drowned him out with his renditions of “Dixie.”

Also in that Gridiron program, a newspaper reporter sang a rendition of “Dixie Melody” with these words: “Rock-a-bye the voters with a southern strategy; Don't you fuss; we won't bus children in ol' Dixie! We'll put George Wallace in decline Below the Mason-Dixon line. We'll help save the nation From things like civil rights and inte-gra-tion! Weep no more, John Stennis! We'll pack the court for sure. We will fight for voting rights - To keep them white and pure! A zillion Southern votes we will deliver; Move Washington down on the Swanee River! Rock-a-bye with Ol' Massa Nixon and his Dixie strategy!” Hilarious, right? Move over, Wanda Sykes! Let's make room for that kind of comedy!

Does anyone honestly believe that were (God forbid) Rush Limbaugh to be the featured entertainer at the White House Correspondents Dinner, that he would tone it down? Hardly. And anyone who's ever seen Wanda Sykes knows that what she served up Saturday night was pretty weak Wanda Soup. I would question wishing kidney failure on someone solely under the category of its potential to deliver Bad Karma to oneself, but my main gripe about that line was that it just wasn't funny. Sykes made a valid point about how wishing failure on a president faced with a crisis IS wishing failure on America, and that wanting America to fail really IS something that Limbaugh and Osama Bin Laden have in common, and for the same reason: the amassing of power unto themselves.

It's really a shame that she had to throw that in there, not because it was insulting, but becuase it was a convenient hook on which too many people, (and even Keith Olbermann succumbed), could hang their Outrage Overcoats, while ignoring the sad truth she spoke just seconds earlier.

As always, Jon Stewart nails it:

Oh, SNAP!

The only thing more hilarious than listening to Barack Obama and Wanda Sykes smack the wingnuts around for a half-hour last night was listening to the talking heads on cable news beforehand speculating on the potential comic stylings of the new president. After all, what can possibly compete for pure comic gold with yukking it up about not finding weapons of mass destruction while American kids are being blown to pieces by IEDs in Iraq? They all laughed good and hard at that in 2004, didn't they. But Obama stood up last night and proceeded to say to the crowd of hacks and narcissists that populate this affair every year, "Say hello to my little friend":

I knew he was funny -- my kind of funny...the kind of dry, snarky funny that at another time could have gotten him a short-lived show on Air America Radio before Danny Goldberg decided that what the network needs is more middle-aged white guys. I think this gig is better, though perhaps before it's all over he'll WISH he was the host of the one-hour "Baracknophobia" from 2-3 AM on your local Air America affiliate, except where a rerun of "Doing Time with Ron Kuby" is running. But this was some truly fine material -- dry, snarky, with plenty of lines to have Morning Schmoe (™ DCap) Dead Girl in Office Scarborough fanning himself on a fainting couch on tomorrow's show about how mean the President was to such icons of nonpartisanship decency as Dick Cheney and John Boehner. After all, Schmoe pretends to be nonpartisan by saying that although he doesn't like Barack Obama's policies, he likes the man.

Obama was so good, especially his passionate defense of a free press to wind up, that Wanda Sykes was almost unnecessary. For those of us who will vociferously defend our position that Wanda is the funniest woman in America, this was pretty weak Wanda, whose best material is unsuitable for C-SPAN. But while nothing at this event will ever match the brilliant ambush perpetrated by Stephen Colbert in 2006, even tame Wanda is laugh-out-loud funny (even if Joe Scarborough won't think so):

I have to admit, though, that my jaw dropped when she talked about Nancy Pelosi telling Obama and Biden to go out together for a burger. You see, if we're going to get up in arms about assassination talk from the other side which they then dismiss as a joke, it's no better coming from our side. This is an exemption from the "It's OK to knock your own team" rule, especially when we have wingnuts coming out of the woodwork arming themselves to the teeth and talking about mass marches on Washington to "take the government back."

This annual event is kind of peculiar anyway; this mix of self-important press people and Hollywood types. I mean, what the hell is Ashton Kutcher doing at this event? I know he's relatively bright and he's penned the occasional piece for Huffington Post. But seriously....Kelso from That 70's Show? The Punk'd guy? It used to be that no one paid any attention to this event, until Bush decided that his lies (or incompetence, take your pick) were fodder for cocktail party yuks. And perhaps it should go back to that. But for now, it's a Very Big Deal, and even if Wanda Sykes tweaked the smug nattering classes a bit too much for their taste (and called them out on their hypocrisy, saying "You're laughing inside, you know it!"), the Washington Press Correspondents' dinner is here to stay.

Set your DVRs, this is gonna be good

I can't wait:

Wanda Sykes, a standup comedian and actor known for her tart commentary on current events, has been chosen as the entertainer at the annual White House correspondents dinner in May.

Sykes, an African-American, is expected to get the chance to make fun of President Barack Obama.

It is a tradition that the president attends the black-tie gala, which attracts about 2,000 people, including the White House press corps and Hollywood celebrities.

Sykes says she already is planning ways to poke fun at the president, including about his reputation for being "a little long-winded."

If I'd gotten down on my knees and prayed for some comedy gold I couldn't ask for better than the funniest woman in America.

Here's a taste of the kind of things we're going to hear. And more:

And with last year's comedian:

And more and more and more.

But Wanda Sykes is more than just funny, and this is why having her at this year's event is so important (and how much would you love to see her do the event in this costume from Ellen DeGeneres' Halloween 2008 show):