We’ll know in September whether our Iraq troop surge is working.

But for now, looks like President Bush has turned the tide in the Iraq comedy surge.

You’ll remember a few years back the President got pilloried for making a gag video of the search for weapons of mass destruction.  CNN’s 2004 report:

During the annual Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner this week, Bush presented a slide show of quirky photographs from inside the White House. In one, the president is looking under furniture in the Oval Office.

“Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere,” Bush joked. “Nope, no weapons over there … maybe under here?”

Naturally, the gag was roundly booed — not in the Washington Hilton ballroom (I was there and no one seemed to object at time of delivery), but in the days of chatter and microscopic dissection afterward.

These days, however, it looks like Bush is taking his Iraq comedy in a different direction.

Here’s the President at the American Legion convention:

It’s going to take time for the recent progress we have seen in security to translate into political progress. In short, it makes no sense to respond to military progress by claiming that we have failed because Iraq’s parliament has yet to pass every law it said it would.

The American people know how difficult democracy can be. Our own country has an advanced and sophisticated political system in place. Yet even we can’t pass a budget on time — and we’ve had 200 years of practice.

Attaboy!  Take yourself out of the joke and replace with Congress.  Third party/surrogate punchline — that’s basic comedy writing there, mister!  Congress is a  perfect all-purpose punchline, and a golden choice for trying out  new Iraq jokes.