Fed’s Greenspan May Set Rates, but He Doesn’t Rate Laughs

Some may consider Alan Greenspan to be more powerful than the president, but unlike George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, the Federal Reserve Board chairman was the target of jokes by late-night television comics only four times this year.

Just one really poked fun at Greenspan--sort of.

Talking about Senate hearings in which young women testified about Internet predators, Bill Maher of ABC’s “Politically Incorrect” joked, “The senators agreed this is not the biggest problem facing America, but they said it sure beats the hell out of listening to Alan Greenspan.”

Oh, and did you hear the one from Jay Leno? Back in April, the NBC “Tonight Show” host said, “You know, I got an idea. Let’s keep Elian Gonzalez in this country and send Alan Greenspan on a raft back to Cuba.” Leno also told a joke about interest rates that made fun of Greenspan’s age (he’s now 74).

As for David Letterman, all the CBS funnyman had to say about the Man Behind the Money was this: “Alan Greenspan has been convinced to stay another term as the chairman of the Fed. He said he’d do it on one condition: He wants in on that hot intern action.”

Greenspan didn’t even make the Top 10 list of joke comparisons compiled each year by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Media and Public Affairs. Totals released last week by the nonprofit research organization, which has been examining four late-night shows as part of its “Laugh Tracks” report of campaign 2000, reveals that Bush won 2000 in a late-night landslide: Some 771 jokes have been told about Bush so far this year, followed by Bill Clinton, whose grand total was 725. (Bush’s ranking was almost half of Clinton’s in 1998, when the country’s 42nd president reached a record 1,712 jokes.) Al Gore took third place, with 494 jokes.

“Bush was a riper target than Gore because Bush’s flaws are known,” said Matthew Felling, spokesman for the center. “Dumb jokes are easier to make than jokes about someone who exaggerates.”

Or someone who apparently has the public’s respect, like Greenspan.

Most often, he is mocked about his age--or his marriage to NBC chief foreign affairs and political correspondent Andrea Mitchell. “His taste for women is not up for judgment,” Felling said. “With Greenspan, there is really no material. And he’s got his finger on the button of the economy. He knows what he’s doing, he does it extraordinarily well, and everybody agrees on that.”

“He’s one of the rare politicians who commands bipartisan respect.”