George's philosophy comedy hour

President Bush, welcoming Lizzie and Phil --

The United Kingdom has written many of the greatest chapters in the history of human freedom. Nearly 800 years ago, the Magna Carta placed the authority of the government under the rule of law. Eighty years later, the first representative assembly of the English people met to debate public policies. Over the centuries, parliaments in Britain established principles that guide all modern democracies. And thinkers from Britain, like Locke and Smith and Burke showed the world that freedom was the natural right of every man, woman and child on Earth.

The sane attendees were hopefully too polite to laugh at George's Magna Carta reference, given his view that a president at war is essentially unbound by the legislature. Although George may share a 1200s era notion of "representative" government i.e. based among the powerful. And the action in Locke, Smith, and Burke was not in vague assertions of natural rights for everyone, but in the mechanisms of getting from present society to more ideal ones. It's doubtful that any of them saw war as a good mechanism for so doing.

On an unrelated note, gossippers looking at tonight's state dinner guest list might take note of Miss Barbara Bush's escort, Jay Blount (apparently an old Yale friend) and the fact that Liz Cheney is coming alone. Perhaps even neocons have trouble finding babysitters.*

Finally, Laura Bush did tell us that her husband has two women in his life --

I will tell you that we did have to talk the President into white tie. (Laughter.) He was not that -- Dr. Rice and I took it upon ourselves to talk him into it, because we thought if we were ever going to have a white tie event, this would be the one.

UPDATE: There also seems to have a reception prior to the dinner with some additional guests invited; mostly it seems to be background staffers who actually make these things work, but note the presence of Dick Cheney's chief of staff David Addington, neck-deep in the torture controversies, and assorted Bush spin-managers including Peter Wehner and Scott Sforza (the dude who e.g. worked on the lighting for Bush's Katrina speech and concocted the photo that made Bush look like a 5th head on Mt Rushmore).

*We erred. Liz's husband was listed below her, Phil Perry. As pointed out elsewhere, this resulted in 6 Cheneys at the event.