Letter: Sometimes politics just isn’t humorous

Friday, July 19, 2002 | 9:12 a.m.

We burst out laughing the other night when we returned from playing bingo at a casino and turned on the TV. There was this comic posing as President Bush, shaking a finger at an audience of CEOs (things Bush used to do in Texas).

Boy we've been needing somebody to poke fun at Washington political hypocrisy the way Will Rogers used to, I thought. Maybe here was a comic to fill Will's shoes. He used to walk out on the stage with a big grin, twirling a rope, and keep us in stitches, dropping one liners about pompous politicians who claimed to represent all of us common folk, while they catered to fat cats who kept them in money bags. I was in my early teens then, but Will was easy to understand.

Sadly, reality began to creep through from the TV screen. This was no comic, this was Bush himself, speaking with a straight face. Oh, my God, I thought. How can anyone with his record have the gall to say these things. Then it dawned on me, he just doesn't know any better. He was brought up thinking Dad and his billionaire friends would always bail him out with their lawyers, polls and propaganda machine, no matter what whoppers he told the public.

I wonder, will he get away with it this time?

PAUL GWIN