Cheap Shots & Potty Humor

From a Washington Times editorial about the White House Correspondents Association dinner:
Mr. Obama abandoned traditional presidential etiquette to take pot shots at his predecessor. He quipped that the obligation to attend the press gala was "just one more problem that I've inherited from George W. Bush." About the previous vice president, he said: "Dick Cheney was supposed to be here, but he is very busy working on his memoirs, tentatively titled, 'How to Shoot Friends and Interrogate People.' " Mr. Obama lowered the level with potty humor about Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner being used as a fire hydrant.
The president laughed along when Miss Sykes ranted that conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh isn't "saying anything differently than Osama bin Laden is saying," that Mr. Limbaugh "needs a good waterboarding" and that she hopes "his kidneys fail."
That was only a warm-up. "I think Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker but he was just so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight," she cracked, also to Mr. Obama's amusement. Yesterday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs tried step back from jokes about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on U.S. soil by telling the press pool "I think there are a lot of topics that are better left for serious reflection rather than comedy."
The annual White House Correspondents Association dinner provides journalists an opportunity to dress up, schmooze with the president and mingle with Hollywood stars who fly in for the evening. It also affords an inside look at what the media think about the president they cover.
"Most of you covered me, all of you voted for me," Mr. Obama joked to roars of laughter and smiling nods. The truth behind the joke is that the press corps' adulation of the president compromises its mission to seek the truth without fear or favor. And that's not funny.