Wonkette

In the spirit of Rich Little’s ripped-from-the-headlines-of-a-Smithsonian-exhbit routine, here’s how the Washington Post reported the last Little-hosted White House Correspondents’ Dinner. It was 1984, the year “Jump” came out and a hot blond woman smashed the telescreen beaming Hillary Clinton’s message to her army of morlocks.

Little’s impersonations included a mock press conference with Reagan plus some walk-on parts by Jimmy Stewart, Jimmy Carter, Henry Kissinger, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon. MORE »

President Bush made a difficult decision.

“I was looking forward to doing a little poking myself, but in light of this tragedy at Virginia Tech I decided not to be funny.”

And so, honorably, did Rich Little.

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The New Yorker gives us a brief sketch of the man who’ll bring us this year’s White House Correspondents Association dinner entertainment, the not-dead-yet Rich Little. Little, who has been on TV approximately twice since the ’70s ended, promises to entertain and amuse everyone who remembers what Dwight Eisenhower’s voice sounded like. MORE »

In another desperate effort to become the awful thing they cover, White House Correspondents Association officials are now just lying for the hell of it. WHCA president Steve Scully now claims he didn’t tell 1970s sensation Rich Little to take it easy on Bush. But then Scully says he did, but only in a coded way that was still just as clear. In other words, the WHCA will not repeat the mistakes of last year! The dinner will return to its stated mission: a reacharound bullshit festival where everyone at the White House and in the Washington press corps can spend a pleasant evening without pretending they’re “adversaries.” MORE »

After a White House Correspondents Dinner marred by a speech that was actually, tragically funny, the WHCA has taken steps to ensure that never again will the C-SPAN-watching public accidentally crack a smile. This year’s dinner guest of honor: Rich Little.

Yeah, the impressionist known for his humorous takes on Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Johnny Carson, and hopefully some people who aren’t dead.

C-SPAN’s Steve Scully, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, said that this year, he wanted to pick someone who hadn’t previously headlined the event. The possibility of selecting Little dawned on him in November when watching Little do impersonations on “The Late Show with David Letterman.”

We’ve embedded that Letterman appearance after the jump, so you can skip the dinner. If you remember the ’70s, you can skip this post.

Little to Head WHCA Big Night [Examiner]

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