Those who know him well keep insisting George W. Bush has a wry sense of humor. The rest of us sometimes wonder if wry is code for paltry. But Bush got a lot of laughs at last week's annual Alfred E. Smith dinner in New York. For those who missed it, here are a few of the better Bush lines:
* "I ran into this woman coming off the elevator. She said a white tie is fine but you need some more earth tones. Nice woman, I think her name was Naomi. The odd thing was, she handed me a bill for $ 15,000. A grown man paying $ 15,000 for someone to tell you what to wear? Heck, $ 15,000 these days gets you a sleepover in the Lincoln bed-room."
* "There really is no place like New York, especially for baseball fans like me and Mrs. Clinton. It's a town with so many outstanding major-leaguers . . . Derek Jeter, Mike Piazza, Adam Clymer."
* "I actually have a lot of respect for the New York media, even the New York Times. I like a newspaper that's predictable. When I was a couple of points down, they said my campaign was in crisis. When it was a little bit up, they said we were neck-and-neck. . . . I can imagine the headline if I win: 'Gore Wins New York City, Setbacks Elsewhere.'"
Ba-dump-bump!