why is this man smiling?

I was stunned to see this photo of President Bush with his arm on the shoulder of a smiling Kermit Ruffins, after the trumpeter performed at a Congressional picnic on the South Lawn of the White House.
You need to read the transcript of Bush's remarks through the stranger-than-fiction, funnier (or sadder)-than-parody penultimate line. Apparently, the White House staff was proud enough of itself and our Dear Leader to post same on its site.

Somewhere, off in the distance, someone must have heard a faint echo of Ruffins's iconic predecessor, Louis Armstrong, circa 1957, when he rebuffed President Eisenhower and canceled a U.S. State Department tour to the Soviet Union because of riots in Little Rock, Ark., over school integration. "The way they are treating my people in the South," Armstrong told newspaper reporters, "the government can go to hell."

Still, there was the comforting news that, come the next election, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow can return his full attention to playing flute and covering Doobie Brothers hits.

June 23, 2007 12:49 AM | | Comments (1)

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1 Comments

By Newt on June 23, 2007 1:33 AM

If you watch the video on the page you linked to, you will see that the stupid Bush line was addressed to the picnicking Congress-critters, and not Kermit.

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