For the same price as visiting the Newseum — $20 — you can just as easily park across the street from the Washington Hilton, which, when the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner rolls around, is as much a wax museum to living journalists as the Newseum is a mausoleum for dead journalists.

So it’s with rare excitement and thrill for the annual dinner that we proclaim last night’s Craig Ferguson performance to be the best comedy act we’ve ever seen in front of that crowd in the International Ballroom. A standing ovation. How delicious that the best comedy was delivered by someone who’s been an American citizen for only two months. Take that, Lou Dobbs!

Ferguson singed both sides of the angle. Vice President Dick Cheney, he said, “is already moving out of his residence. It takes longer than you think to pack up an entire dungeon.” But he also made pointed observation of the far larger number of Democrats in the room than Republicans.

Even more groundbreaking — and perhaps more important for leading our country to greatness and improving the overall lot humanity– is a ground-breaking photo taken by my colleague Leslie Bradshaw (Leslie’s full real-time Twitter coverage of the dinner here) of Miss Universe.  We’ll have that photo posted here later today. But here’s a hint as to what you’ll see: No doubt the biggest thrill of this young star’s life was having her picture taken with Extreme Mortman.

Other thrills, of course, were had by Charlie Wilson (yes, that Charlie Wilson) who had the distinct privilege to be interviewed by Leslie Bradshaw and Howard Mortman. How rare is that! Listen to the interview here. But beware: full swoon ahead.
We were also impressed to see tenured TV personalities Larry King and John McLaughlin working the room, both surprisingly ambulatory in their golden years of broadcast. No doubt they downed a few shots of prune juice together. What a week it’s been for John McLaughlin: He moved from DC’s Channel 4 to Channel 9. A man of his age needs to be careful with moves like that. Don’t want to break a hip.
Meantime, in his last appearance, President Bush also went on a high note, conducting the United State Marine Corps Band. But, sadly for him, no photo with Miss USA.