Bush Fuming over Colbert's Comic Routine

In Washington, if you're the subject of a roast, your job is to take it and laugh along. Every president from Kennedy to Clinton has understood that. But Bush's flaw is that he's been trying to prove himself for the last forty years. When U.S. News begins to question Bush, the winds of Washington are shifting:

"Colbert crossed the line," said one top Bush aide, who rushed out of the hotel as soon as Colbert finished. Another said that the president was visibly angered by the sharp lines that kept coming.

"I've been there before, and I can see that he is [angry]," said a former top aide. "He's got that look that he's ready to blow."

Colbert's routine was similar to what he does on his show, the Colbert Report, but much longer on the topic of Bush, suggesting that the president is out of touch with reality. Aides and reporters, however, said that it did not overshadow Bush's own funny routine, which featured an impersonator who told the audience what Bush was thinking when he spoke dull speech lines.

In fact, some aides crowed over reports that the president easily bested Colbert in the reviews of both comedy acts.

Much has been said about the strange bubble that Bush lives in. Is it possible he was unaware of what he was in for with Colbert? Didn't his aides warn him? But then, when aides crow about a boss who's been magnificiently skewered in a comedy skit by trying to pretend otherwise, we see the proof that Bush is surrounded by toadies and yes men who are terrified to give Bush the facts. I suspect these are the same aides that crowed when they discovered that Cheney's numbers are even worse than those of Bush.

Still, that temper of Bush is worrisome. It's his job to be president, not to pursue some personal agenda because a comic or even someone more loyal to the US Constitution than Bush gets under his skin.