Bush Toasted, Roasted at Gridiron Party

The lions of the Washington press corps gathered for song and dance at the annual Gridiron Club dinner Saturday night to poke fun at the Democrats’ misfortunes, salute East European democracy and twit President Bush for turning up his nose at broccoli.

Following the 105-year-old club’s hallowed tradition, the journalists hurl satirical barbs at the prominent government officials and political figures they cover every day. Many of their targets, including Bush, were among more than 600 people invited to the white-tie event.

A song and dance skit lampooned Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, former Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega and Vice President Dan Quayle--about his purchase of an obscene gag doll during a visit to Chile last month.

The guest list included Bush and his wife, Barbara, senior White House advisers, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Colin L. Powell, Soviet Ambassador Yuri V. Dubinin, seven Cabinet members, diplomats, governors and newspaper publishers and editors from across the country.

Bush would be the 18th consecutive President to attend a Gridiron Dinner since Benjamin Harrison attended his first in 1892, and he was to be honored with the only toast of the evening.

Gridiron president David S. Broder of the Washington Post, in prepared remarks, welcomed Bush to “an evening of song and satire and gentle humor, all so carefully buffed and smoothly rounded that it has justly come to be known as the ‘Night of the Long Butter Knives.’ ”

The program included a journalist posing as a 7-foot broccoli. The skit called for a colleague in chef’s attire to shout “Room service for President Bush!”

The menu included a single floret of broccoli, along with smoked buffalo, as a silent reminder of Bush’s declaration that he had detested broccoli since childhood and refused to eat it anymore.

Club members were ready to spoof the Democrats, who haven’t won a presidential election since 1976, as goody-goody kids from the popular “Howdy Doody” children’s TV show of the 1950s.

The Noriega character sings:

“I’m a Yankqui Doodle Dandy,

“A vet’ran of the CIA,

“A covert nephew of our Uncle Sam.

“How can you treat me this way? . . .

“Why’d you have to send your army,

“And those damn boom boxes?

“What happened to the good old times?”

Later, in a reference to the recent opening of a McDonald’s fast-food restaurant in Moscow, a Gorbachev stand-in sings:

“You deserve a break today,

“Eat Beeg Mac and plastic tray,

“At McGorby’s.”