And of course Clinton was not the only target that night. "The president (nowadays) gets treated better by Rush Limbaugh (than by the White House press corps). Rush may not, as Al Franken suggests, be a 'big, fat idiot,' but I'm sick of him. The radio show, the television show, the stupid books, and now men's ties -- bold, vibrant, colorful, and all designed to look great with a brown shirt." This brought laughter. But anything -- anything -- will bring laughter to a crowd far gone in booze and impiety.
A huge commotion followed, though not until three days later, when Imus' speech was broadcast on C-SPAN; the association's celebratory evening was not interrupted. Imus was quoted as saying that the look he saw in Clinton's eye convinced him that if the president had had a gun, he'd have aimed it at the speaker and shot. A strong metaphor, but when the cocked guns began to go off on Thursday, it gave some satisfaction that there are reserves of decency in the land that sometimes assert themselves.