From God to Darth Vader: May the Farce Be With You

God Almighty descended on the nation’s capital in the form of Newt Gingrich, and Bob Dole stripped off a villainous Darth Vader exterior: Saturday’s 110th annual Gridiron Dinner was the stuff of partisan political dreams.

It was an evening of singing and zinging, with President Clinton the primary target. In one skit, a character quipped that among the perks of Clinton’s Cabinet are a private dining room and “your own special prosecutor.”

But the Republican revolution, guillotine and all, was center stage at the white-tie dinner where Washington’s elite take a musical beating and reporters make fools of themselves--on purpose.

The Gridiron, composed of 60 of Washington’s leading journalists, traditionally divides up its show into two halves: one skewering Republicans, the other skewering Democrats.

This year, an actor portrayed Gingrich as God, in white flowing robes.

“Newt Gingrich, which art the Speaker, hallowed be my name,” he boomed across the ballroom.

“My kingdom come, my contract done, on Earth as sent down from Heaven.

“Cut welfare kids off daily bread. And forgive Connie Chung.

“As I forgive my mother.”

The President attended without First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is traveling in Asia.

“The First Lady is sorry she can’t be with you tonight,” Clinton told the audience. He paused, then added: “If you believe that, I’ve got some land in Arkansas I’d like to sell you.”

The GOP skit dressed Republicans as 18th-Century French revolutionaries, sending public television’s Big Bird to the guillotine and gleefully bouncing his feathered head across the stage.

The Democrats played waifs in “The Newt Gingrich Memorial Orphanage,” existing on “a thin gruel of ideas their leaders dole out to them.”