"AND THEN MRS MCKINLEY REMINDED ME TO CHECK THE WATER MANE. 'REMEMBER THE MANE!', SHE SAID. "

Wonkette on WMD-Joke-gate:

Who can forget Lincoln's Gridiron dinner punchline: "Is there a carpenter in the house? Because I've got a house divided I'm having trouble with." Or Nixon at White House Correspondents' Dinner: "You may have heard we bombed Cambodia. It's not my fault. I told them left at Laos, left."

Hehehe.

For those of you who missed it, here's some background on what went down at the Radio Correspondents' Dinner:

Bush provided amusing descriptions of photographs Wednesday night during the annual dinner of the Radio and Television News Correspondents Association. Some showed the president in awkward poses as he looked behind furniture in the Oval Office. For those photos, Bush told the audience, "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere ... nope, no weapons over there ... maybe under here?"

Laughter erupted from the crowd of journalists, politicians and their guests then and at other times during Bush's remarks. For years the dinner has featured political and topical humor, most of it playful if barbed at times.

In a vacuum, this joke could play very well, if delivered correctly. Based on the laughter it received, it seems that George delivered it very well. But that's not the point.

Yes, many comedians of all shapes and sizes -- though probably not Dennis Miller, though the issue there is whether or not he's actually funny anymore -- have received laughs from WMD jokes. Trouble is Bush, unlike most other comedians, is also the President of the United States. He needs to talk about WMD in a serious way too. If he started a war in Iraq based on WMD that didn't actually exist, he needs to open up a serious, meaningful dialogue with the American people on the issue before he can expect to be able to joke about it without John Kerry, T-Mac and others jumping on it.

And once again, if Bush really believed those WMD existed, and he couldn't find them, wouldn't he be a wee bit more concerned as to where they went?

On the whole, Bush making a joke at a correspondents' dinner isn't the biggest deal in the world, but as far as the outrage expressed by some, Bush should know that he was playing with fire.