Karl Rove, Laurie David, Sheryl Crow, White House Correspondents' Dinner

CNN's report "Dinner debate heats up between Rove, Crow":

Karl Rove's debate with singer Sheryl Crow and producer Laurie David about global warming heated the atmosphere at a black-tie Washington dinner.

On the eve of Earth Day, Crow and "Inconvenient Truth" producer David walked over to the presidential adviser's table at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner Saturday night at the Washington Hilton.

Their differences on global warming quickly bubbled over, the Washington Post reported Sunday.

"I am floored by what I just experienced with Karl Rove," David said later. "I went over to him and said, I urge you to take a new look at global warming. He went zero to 100 with me. ... I've never had anyone be so rude."

Rove said: "She came over to insult me and she succeeded."

As the debate intensified, Crow tried to calm things down but was drawn into the debate with Rove instead.

"You work for me," she told Rove, according to the Post column "The Reliable Source."

"No," was his response. "I work for the American people."

Heather Lylis, a spokeswoman for Crow and David's global warming tour, said Sunday that Crow's response for Rove was: "Yes, and I'm an American citizen."

Laurie David and Sheryl Crow tell the story on Huffington Post:

Last night Thelma and Louise drove the bus off the cliff or at least into the White House Correspondents Dinner. The "highlight" of the evening had to be when we were introduced to Karl Rove. How excited were we to have our first opportunity ever to talk directly to the Bush Administration about global warming.

We asked Mr. Rove if he would consider taking a fresh look at the science of global warming. Much to our dismay, he immediately got combative. And it went downhill from there.

We reminded the senior White House advisor that the US leads the world in global warming pollution and we are doing the least about it. Anger flaring, Mr. Rove immediately regurgitated the official Administration position on global warming which is that the US spends more on researching the causes than any other country.

We felt compelled to remind him that the research is done and the results are in (www.IPCC.ch). Mr. Rove exploded with even more venom. Like a spoiled child throwing a tantrum, Mr. Rove launched into a series of illogical arguments regarding China not doing enough thus neither should we. (Since when do we follow China's lead?)

At some point during his ramblings, we became heartbroken to think that the President of the United States and his top advisers have partially built a career on global warming not being real. We have been telling college students across the country for the past two weeks that government does not change until people demand it... well, listen up folks, everyone had better get a lot louder because the message clearly is not getting through.

In his attempt to dismiss us, Mr. Rove turned to head toward his table, but as soon as he did so, Sheryl reached out to touch his arm. Karl swung around and spat, "Don't touch me." How hardened and removed from reality must a person be to refuse to be touched by Sheryl Crow? Unfazed, Sheryl abruptly responded, "You can't speak to us like that, you work for us." Karl then quipped, "I don't work for you, I work for the American people." To which Sheryl promptly reminded him, "We are the American people."

At that point Mr. Rove apparently decided he had had enough. Like a groundhog fearful of his own shadow, he scurried to his table in an attempt to hibernate for another year from his responsibility to address global warming. Drama aside, you would expect as an American citizen to be able to engage in a civil discussion with a public official. Instead, Mr. Rove was dismissive, condescending, and quite frankly a bully.

Ultimately, we were left wondering what on Earth Mr. Rove was talking about when he said "the American people." If more than 60% of American voters, the Supreme Court, over 400 cities, the US National Academy of Sciences, numerous major US corporations, and others don't constitute the American people, then what does? The truth is, if this administration cared one iota about the American people, they would have addressed this problem long ago, and the sad reality is that this problem has been left to us, all of us, since the current administration has abandoned this issue entirely. In the absence of true leadership, we must guide ourselves. We can solve this, but we had better act fast.

www.stopglobalwarming.org

======================================================

http://www.fox23news.com/entertainment/story.aspx?content_id=046b339f-36a9-4668-9f57-573375ca4e1c

United Press International

President George W. Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, reportedly clashed with singer Sheryl Crow over global warming at a gala dinner in Washington.

Both were guests at the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner. Crow -- who has been on a promotional tour with 'An Inconvenient Truth' producer Laurie David -- approached Rove and the result was a heated exchange, The Washington Post reported.

"I am floored by what I just experienced with Karl Rove," David said. "I went over to him and said, 'I urge you to take a new look at global warming.' He went zero to 100 with me ... I've never had anyone be so rude."

Rove had a different account of the incident, the Post reported.

"She came over to insult me and she succeeded," he said.

In a posting at the online Huffington Post, David said Crow reached out to touch Rove's arm and Rove said, "Don't touch me."

Crow reportedly responded, "You can't speak to us like that, you work for us."

David said Rove answered by saying he works for the American people, and Crow told Rove, "We are the American people."

Witnesses told the Post David had been aggressive with Rove.

The Washington Post's report, Rich Little Bravely Answers Washington's Call:

Most people who endured Rich Little's performance at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner Saturday night had the same reaction ... bless his heart.


Rich Little brought his presidential voices to Washington on Saturday night. (Getty Images)
Bless his heart for getting trapped in a time warp that won't let him escape 1981. (The man is still hinging his act on Richard "Tricky Dick" Nixon and Ronald Reagan impressions.)

Bless his heart for getting up in front of a tough crowd of jaded but thin-skinned cynics who couldn't handle it when last year's headliner, Stephen Colbert, made fun of them (and took some pretty tough shots at the president).

And bless his heart for enthusiastically saying "yes" and agreeing to perform after so many others said "no thanks."

Rich Little, you see, wasn't the White House Correspondents' Association's first choice. Or its second. Or its third, fourth, or even fifth choice.

This year's lead organizer of the event, WHCA President Steve Scully of C-SPAN, went after a long list of big dogs. But they all turned him down.

Jay Leno had a "scheduling conflict." David Letterman declined (though he did send a top-10 video). Billy Crystal wanted an obscene amount of money to do the gig (we're told it was well into six figures), which would have left no prize money for scholarships.

Jerry Seinfeld? Nope. Robin Williams was a "maybe" for about 15 minutes, until his agent advised Scully that the left-leaning hyperkinetic comedian couldn't be trusted not to offend President Bush.

The agent, Scully recalled, said Williams "wouldn't be appropriate."

Which left, well, Rich Little. "Regardless of what you think of Rich Little, he was really excited to do this," Scully said. "And the President and Mrs. Bush -- they really loved it."

While the ruling minority laughed during Little's performance Saturday night, the silent majority seated in the Washington Hilton's giant ballroom cringed. Including Ann Compton of ABC News, who is vice president of the White House Correspondents' Association. She said she thinks Little "does excellent impersonations," but that the ones he chose to perform -- Nixon, Reagan, Johnny Carson, Jimmy Carter -- were "too dated and too stale."

(Though the curmudgeonly conservative columnist Michael Barone told us, "I loved it. But, I'm old!")

As Little ended and people with pained expressions bolted for the exits to hit the after parties, actor Harry Shearer quipped, "He got a walking ovation."

President and Mrs. Bush had already been treated to a private dose of the impressionist's impressions at the White House Friday morning. Little is the first WHCA dinner entertainer, at least in Scully's memory, to meet with the President. He took some charcoal drawings he did of President and Mrs. Bush, and regaled them with (what else?) impressions of President Reagan and the Queen.

Little, according to Scully, who accompanied the comic to the White House, told a (yes, old) story about Reagan going horseback riding with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle in 1984. The Queen apologized to Reagan for her horse "passing wind," to which Reagan responded, "Don't worry, Your Majesty, we know it's not you."

Behind the scenes at the dinner:

Besides guests clobbering 17-year-old "American Idol" star Sanjaya for photos and autographs all night, the most notable moment of the dinner was well plotted dust-up between "Inconvenient Truth" producer Laurie David and White House consiglieri Karl Rove.

Buzz about the argument spread from table to table Saturday night. One congressional aide ran over to tell The Sleuth, "Laurie David just accosted Karl Rove." We walked over to the CNN table where David and her husband, producer Larry David, were seated and Laurie David was more than happy to tell us the whole story.

David said New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who was seated at the same table as Rove, introduced her to Rove. "Hello, Mr. Rove, I'm Laurie David. I'd like to urge you to take a new look at global warming."

By that time, David's good friend, Sheryl Crow showed up to help pile on. "He got angry very quickly," David told us. "He started yelling about China."

"And I said to him, 'The U.S. is the leading cause of global warming,'" David said. "And that's when he got very angry."

One nearby witness said David and Crow were "out of line."

(Our colleagues at Reliable Source wrote about the David-Rove exchange in their column in Sunday's Post.)

But at least Laurie David didn't have a fight with other senior Bush administration officials she met. "I got to say hello to Condi Rice and I must say, she was much nicer," David told The Sleuth. David said she suggested to Rice that global warming is a "national security problem;" David said Rice replied, "I agree, global warming is a problem" -- omitting any reference to national security implications.

(Check out Libby Copeland's and Dana Milbank's piece in Monday's Post about the after parties on Saturday night.)

Rove, Sheryl Crow Clash at Gala
Last Update: Apr 23, 2007 10:57 AM



http://www.fox23news.com/entertainment/story.aspx?content_id=046b339f-36a9-4668-9f57-573375ca4e1c

United Press International

President George W. Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, reportedly clashed with singer Sheryl Crow over global warming at a gala dinner in Washington.

Both were guests at the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner. Crow -- who has been on a promotional tour with 'An Inconvenient Truth' producer Laurie David -- approached Rove and the result was a heated exchange, The Washington Post reported.

"I am floored by what I just experienced with Karl Rove," David said. "I went over to him and said, 'I urge you to take a new look at global warming.' He went zero to 100 with me ... I've never had anyone be so rude."

Rove had a different account of the incident, the Post reported.

"She came over to insult me and she succeeded," he said.

In a posting at the online Huffington Post, David said Crow reached out to touch Rove's arm and Rove said, "Don't touch me."

Crow reportedly responded, "You can't speak to us like that, you work for us."

David said Rove answered by saying he works for the American people, and Crow told Rove, "We are the American people."

Witnesses told the Post David had been aggressive with Rove.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2007/04/how_they_wound_up_with_rich_li.html

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Rich Little Bravely Answers Washington's Call
Most people who endured Rich Little's performance at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner Saturday night had the same reaction ... bless his heart.


Rich Little brought his presidential voices to Washington on Saturday night. (Getty Images)
Bless his heart for getting trapped in a time warp that won't let him escape 1981. (The man is still hinging his act on Richard "Tricky Dick" Nixon and Ronald Reagan impressions.)

Bless his heart for getting up in front of a tough crowd of jaded but thin-skinned cynics who couldn't handle it when last year's headliner, Stephen Colbert, made fun of them (and took some pretty tough shots at the president).

And bless his heart for enthusiastically saying "yes" and agreeing to perform after so many others said "no thanks."

Rich Little, you see, wasn't the White House Correspondents' Association's first choice. Or its second. Or its third, fourth, or even fifth choice.

This year's lead organizer of the event, WHCA President Steve Scully of C-SPAN, went after a long list of big dogs. But they all turned him down.

Jay Leno had a "scheduling conflict." David Letterman declined (though he did send a top-10 video). Billy Crystal wanted an obscene amount of money to do the gig (we're told it was well into six figures), which would have left no prize money for scholarships.

Jerry Seinfeld? Nope. Robin Williams was a "maybe" for about 15 minutes, until his agent advised Scully that the left-leaning hyperkinetic comedian couldn't be trusted not to offend President Bush.

The agent, Scully recalled, said Williams "wouldn't be appropriate."

Which left, well, Rich Little. "Regardless of what you think of Rich Little, he was really excited to do this," Scully said. "And the President and Mrs. Bush -- they really loved it."

While the ruling minority laughed during Little's performance Saturday night, the silent majority seated in the Washington Hilton's giant ballroom cringed. Including Ann Compton of ABC News, who is vice president of the White House Correspondents' Association. She said she thinks Little "does excellent impersonations," but that the ones he chose to perform -- Nixon, Reagan, Johnny Carson, Jimmy Carter -- were "too dated and too stale."

(Though the curmudgeonly conservative columnist Michael Barone told us, "I loved it. But, I'm old!")

As Little ended and people with pained expressions bolted for the exits to hit the after parties, actor Harry Shearer quipped, "He got a walking ovation."

President and Mrs. Bush had already been treated to a private dose of the impressionist's impressions at the White House Friday morning. Little is the first WHCA dinner entertainer, at least in Scully's memory, to meet with the President. He took some charcoal drawings he did of President and Mrs. Bush, and regaled them with (what else?) impressions of President Reagan and the Queen.

Little, according to Scully, who accompanied the comic to the White House, told a (yes, old) story about Reagan going horseback riding with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle in 1984. The Queen apologized to Reagan for her horse "passing wind," to which Reagan responded, "Don't worry, Your Majesty, we know it's not you."

Behind the scenes at the dinner:

Besides guests clobbering 17-year-old "American Idol" star Sanjaya for photos and autographs all night, the most notable moment of the dinner was well plotted dust-up between "Inconvenient Truth" producer Laurie David and White House consiglieri Karl Rove.

Buzz about the argument spread from table to table Saturday night. One congressional aide ran over to tell The Sleuth, "Laurie David just accosted Karl Rove." We walked over to the CNN table where David and her husband, producer Larry David, were seated and Laurie David was more than happy to tell us the whole story.

David said New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who was seated at the same table as Rove, introduced her to Rove. "Hello, Mr. Rove, I'm Laurie David. I'd like to urge you to take a new look at global warming."

By that time, David's good friend, Sheryl Crow showed up to help pile on. "He got angry very quickly," David told us. "He started yelling about China."

"And I said to him, 'The U.S. is the leading cause of global warming,'" David said. "And that's when he got very angry."

One nearby witness said David and Crow were "out of line."

(Our colleagues at Reliable Source wrote about the David-Rove exchange in their column in Sunday's Post.)

But at least Laurie David didn't have a fight with other senior Bush administration officials she met. "I got to say hello to Condi Rice and I must say, she was much nicer," David told The Sleuth. David said she suggested to Rice that global warming is a "national security problem;" David said Rice replied, "I agree, global warming is a problem" -- omitting any reference to national security implications.

Variety's report:

Stars, politicians mix at White House
Correspondents Dinner happens without a hitch
By WILLIAM TRIPLETT


Rich Little's humor wasn't as confrontational, or as fresh, as last year's host, Stephen Colbert.


President Bush is tickled by Rich Little's perf at Saturday's dinner.


Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice chats with talkshow host Larry King.

An annual unconsummated mating ritual between A-list journos and the people they cover as well as the stars they covet, the White House Correspondents Dinner went off without a hitch or much of anything else Saturday night -- precisely as planners had hoped. Comedian Rich Little stayed comfortably within the envelope of respectability, in stark contrast to last year's headliner, Stephen Colbert, who broke the usual bounds and whose presence was still felt even in his absence.
A "Top Ten" list that David Letterman sent provided the closest thing to an edgy moment, but despite even a political point or two that some showbiz types tried to make, provoking minor fireworks, the evening was the usual display of the seductive power of celebrity in almost any form.

The mother of all D.C. parties, except for maybe a presidential inauguration ball, the WHCD always traffics in stars as news orgs compete for the biggest names to come as guests. This year the list included, among others, Sheryl Crow, Morgan Fairchild, Tim Daly, Valerie Bertinelli, Kerry Washington, Jane Fonda, Tim Gunn, Larry and Laurie David, Wendy Malick and -- nabbed by People magazine at the last second -- former "American Idol" contestant Sanjaya Malakar (who appeared with subdued hair). Dennis Hopper was listed as a guest, but whether he made it wasn't clear.

The mutual fascination between Hollywood and D.C. dominated the crowd of more than 2,000 at the Washington Hilton.

While Laurie David said it was her first WHCD and "could be my last -- it's too big, even by Hollywood standards," she also enthused: "Within 15 minutes of arriving, I got to hug (New York Gov.) Eliot Spitzer!"

Spitzer, in turn, made a point of stopping by Sanjaya's table to get the 17-year-old's autograph.

The Washington Post spotted CBS Evening News exec Rick Kaplan "climbing on top of chairs to reach Jane Fonda," and Fairchild "chatting up" MSNBC talking head Chris Matthews.

Karl Rove, White House deputy chief of staff and a player in the outing of former CIA officer Valerie Plame, found himself unwillingly recruited into the evening's entertainment of last month's Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner to do a spontaneous rap routine. Asked if he was going to do anything for the WHCD, Rove told Daily Variety, "Nothing. I'm doing nothing! And if I'm called on to do anything, I'm going to hide under the table!"

Rove might have wished he had hidden under the table when Laurie David, producer of "An Inconvenient Truth," approached to ask him to reconsider the threat of global warming. "We got into a little fight," David said later. According to David, Rove exploded rudely; according to Rove, David was the aggressor. Witnesses said Crow tried to break things up, only to get into it with Rove herself.

David apparently had better luck with Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. "I told her one of the biggest national security concerns is global warming," David said. "And she agreed."

Underscoring the sometimes odd love affair between showbiz and politics, Motion Picture Assn. of America chairman Dan Glickman presented a montage of film clips from movies about politics, including "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," "Seven Days in May," "Primary Colors," "All the President's Men," and "Born Yesterday."

After handing out awards for political reporting, ABC World News anchor Charlie Gibson told the crowd that the White House Correspondents Assn. has been trying "for years" to get Letterman to come, "but don't they know he's too big and important?" Still, Gibson said, Letterman had compiled a list of "Top 10 George W. Bush Moments" -- video clips of the president bumping his head on his helicopter; trying to leave a stage after speaking, but finding nothing but locked doors; spitting on the White House lawn; etc. Amid the clips Letterman appeared, saying he would love to be at the dinner, "but Saturday night for me is yoga."

Through it all, Bush, the guest of honor, smiled.

The evening took a somber turn when White House spokesman Tony Snow appeared. He has been away from his job since the announcement three weeks ago that his cancer had returned. Following Snow came the editor of the Virginia Tech newspaper, who thanked the media for coverage and asked the audience for a "Let's go, Hokies!" cheer, which was graciously supplied.

Bush then briefly took the podium, saying it was good to laugh and that "we've got to learn to laugh more in this town. A society that pokes fun at its political leaders is a confident and free society." (Sustained applause.) "But in light of the Virginia Tech tragedy, I've decided not to be funny. But I do have the honor of introducing the man who will be."

And with that, Little took over, deliberately distinguishing himself from Colbert. "I'm not a political satirist. I'm not here to make a political point. I'm just a nightclub entertainer who tells lots of dumb, silly jokes."

He used impressions -- of John McCain, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Johnny Carson, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter and W. -- to tell jokes, some old enough that guests occasionally muttered the punch lines before he did.

A few times Little drew hearty laughs; mostly the laughs were polite.

Buttonholed after the dinner ended, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich offered this assessment: "The president was right not to be funny. It was very emotional to see Tony Snow again. And I thought Rich Little rose to the occasion."

Not everyone agreed about Little. "Tired" was one description from a congressional staffer, and Malick said, "Rich is a very accomplished comedian, but there was nothing new. I've been hearing it all for years. He's very fun, but very safe."

Marie Little, the comic's wife, took issue with that. "Stephen Colbert was very disrespectful and very untasteful. Rich isn't safe. He's tasteful."

At the glitzy after-party sponsored by Capitol File magazine and the Colombian ambassador (Vanity Fair and Bloomberg sponsored the other two respective big shindigs), Kerry Washington was ambivalent about the evening. She felt good about "celebrating a free press, which we need, but I was a little disappointed and shocked that no one talked about the (Iraq) war." Careful to emphasize respect and concern for the Virginia Tech tragedy, Washington added, "It's interesting that the president could be funny last year with many soldiers dying overseas, but couldn't be this year."

Malick agreed. "It's obscene how much attention we're putting on this particular incident," she said. "This kind of thing happens all the time (elsewhere) but people don't talk about what happened in Darfur or Iraq in the last week."

And some were struck by simpler -- or maybe more profound -- observations. "I'm just impressed that the Hilton drained the pool for this thing," said Harry Shearer. "It's got to be special if the pool is drained."