Dismay follows Chase’s rant

Even certified Hollywood liberals were reeling after Chevy Chase’s potty-mouthed Bush-bashing Tuesday night at the Kennedy Center in Washington, where the actor hosted an awards ceremony staged by People for the American Way.

For most of the evening, Chase was his usual comedic self. But after actors Alec Baldwin and Susan Sarandon delivered speeches accepting their Defender of Democracy awards, Chase took the stage a final time and unleashed a rant against President Bush that stunned the crowd. He employed the four-letter word that got Vice President Cheney in hot water and also said, “This guy in office is an uneducated, real lying schmuck ... and we still couldn’t beat him with a bore like Kerry.”

People for the American Way distanced itself afterward from the actor’s rant. “Chevy Chase’s improvised remarks caught everyone off guard, and were inappropriate and offensive,” Ralph Neas, the liberal advocacy group’s president, said in a statement. “It was not what I would have said, and certainly not the language People for the American Way would ever use in discussing any president of the United States.”