I found this little tid bit of comedy from theonion.com dated 2/01/06:

"Tonight, by executive order, I am creating a permanent department with a vital mission: to ensure that the political scandals, underhanded dealings, and outright criminal activities of this administration are handled in a professional and orderly fashion," Bush said.

The centerpiece of Bush's plan is the Department Of Corruption, Bribery, and Incompetence, which will centralize duties now dispersed throughout the entire D.C.-area political establishment.

The Scandal Secretary will log all wiretaps and complaints of prisoner abuse, coordinate paid-propaganda efforts, eliminate redundant payoffs and bribes, oversee the appointment of unqualified political donors to head watchdog agencies, control all leaks and other high-level security breaches, and oversee the disappearance of Iraq reconstruction funds. He will also be responsible for issuing all official denials that laws have been broken.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/44892

This is a more recent example of comedy from Huffpo:

"I am confident that I made decisions based on principle, that I made calls as best I could, and I did not sell my soul," Bush told an audience of about 1,000 men and women...

.................................................

Outside, about 300 protesters burned "W." in effigy and hurled shoes.
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/23/bush-i-regret-standing-in_n_331899.html

This  article struck me because it emphasizes the thin line between comedy and raging anger.

Tim Reid at Timesonline got as pissed about w becoming a motivational speaker as I did in my recent blog.

He left office with the US embroiled in two wars, a Great Recession and with his approval rating a toxic 22 per cent. So the next stage in his career is obvious. George W Bush -- who last year inspired millions of people to vote Democrat -- is about to become a highly-paid motivational speaker.

Old Tim kind of finished his rant like I had but selected some other statements made by our former Commander-in-Chief:

What George said

"In terms of the economy -- look, I inherited a recession, I am ending on a recession"

-- Washington, January 12, 2009

"I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office"

-- Washington, May 12, 2008

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we"

-- Washington, August 5, 2004

"The CIA laid out several scenarios and said life could be lousy, life could be OK, life could be better, and they were just guessing as to what the conditions might be like"

-- New York, September 21, 2004

"I'm the master of low expectations"

-- On Air Force One, June 4, 2003

"There's no cave deep enough for America, or dark enough to hide"

-- Oklahoma, August 29, 2002

"I know the human being and fish can co-exist peacefully"

-- Michigan, September 29, 2000

"Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream"

-- Wisconsin, October 18, 2000

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6887866.ece

I made this short list of reasons why George W. Bush was not that  good of a comedian, really.

1.   I do not recall, Gonzales said.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIgbJSrIvWc

2.  Secretary Ken Salazar of the Department of Interior an Obama appointee finds it hard to laugh much these days:

"In its last weeks in office, the Bush Administration pushed through a rule that allows coal mine operators to dump mountaintop fill into streambeds if it's found to be the cheapest and most convenient disposal option," said Secretary Salazar. "We must responsibly develop our coal supplies to help us achieve energy independence, but we cannot do so without appropriately assessing the impact such development might have on local communities and natural habitat and the species it supports."

3.   We cannot forget Bolton of course who continually throughout his career fought to destroy the UN. I mean Bush made him the U.S. Ambassador to the UN.

4.  Bush put a guy named Martin on the FCC. Before joining Bush-Cheney 2000, Martin served as legal advisor to FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth, in the Office of the Independent Counsel, and as an associate of Wiley Rein LLP. One of Wiley Rein's most important clients is Verizon

5. In September 5, 2006, Bush nominated Peters to replace Norman Mineta as Secretary of Transportation.[4] She was confirmed on September 29, 2006 by the United States Senate.

Peters is an advocate of leasing U.S. roads and interstates to private companies and having user fees (i.e., tolls) for building new highways. In an interview, Peters said that the National Highway System will run out of money by decade's end without substantial changes and, rather than raise taxes, some states should turn to toll roads leased to private corporations to fill gaps.[7]

http://www.doi.gov/news/09_News_Releases/042709.html

6.   Bush's first Secretary of Energy, Spencer Abraham, was controversial at the time of his 2001 appointment because as a senator he co-sponsored S.896, a bill to abolish the United States Department of Energy, in 1999.[38] Samuel Wright Bodman III, Sc.D. is the United States Secretary of Energy and was previously Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department.

7.  In 2001, Bush appointed Philip A. Cooney, a former lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute, to the White House Council on Environmental Equality. Cooney is known to have edited government climate reports in order to minimize the findings of scientific sources tying greenhouse gas emissions to global warming.[43]

Just in this short list, it seems clear that George W. Bush could be incompetent and evil at the same time. I guess that is why I think that he does have a soul under his comedic masque.

I mean w chooses as his chief legal adviser and Attorney General, someone who has no memory.

He permits his Secretary of Interior to issue an order allowing direct contamination into America's drinking water as one of his last acts before stepping down from power.

He appoints John Bolton as U.N. Ambassador, knowing he could not get consent from the Senate.

He gives Verizon its own position on the FCC.

His Secretary of Transportation attempts to sell America's highways.

He makes someone who wishes to abolish the Department of  Energy the Secretary of the Department of Energy.

He puts oil lobbyists in charge of our environmental policy.

On a different note, I found this today at the Daily Beast:  

The body of Jeffry Picower, the tax shelter lawyer and accountant who made $7 billion in Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, was found dead in the swimming pool of his Palm Beach, Florida mansion Sunday. According to the city's fire department, Picower's wife called 911 after discovering her husband's body at their oceanfront home shortly after noon and pulled him out with the help of a housekeeper. She had reportedly seen her husband swimming 15 minutes prior to finding him dead on the floor of pool. Picower benefited the most from Madoff's scam, according to the bankruptcy lawyers who alleged he'd taken out $7 billion more than he'd originally put in--a felony, for which, investigators say, he would have likely faced criminal charges. "He made 30 times what Madoff did from the scam and about a third of the missing money went to Picower," one investigator said, suggesting he may have been the mastermind behind the con or Madoff's equal "partner in crime." Investigators say Madoff documents prove that Picower frequently offered instructions as to how he could create false trades. Police said they did not know the cause of death and are awaiting the results of a full autopsy and toxicology test.