by Rex Wockner
National News Briefs
Openly lesbian comedian Wanda Sykes has come under fire for comments she made to President Barack Obama on May 9 at the White House Correspondents' Association Annual Dinner.
"Rush Limbaugh, one of your big critics," Sykes said from the podium. "Boy, Rush Limbaugh said he hopes this administration fails. So you're saying, 'I hope America fails.' … He just wants the country to fail. To me, that's treason. He's not saying anything differently than what Osama bin Laden is saying.
"I think maybe Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker but he was just so strung out on OxyContin he missed his flight. … Rush Limbaugh. 'I hope the country fails.' I hope his kidneys fail. How 'bout that? He needs a good waterboarding, that's what he needs."
Folks from the right and the left, including White House spokesman Robert Gibbs and liberal TV commentator Keith Olbermann, said Sykes had gone too far.
"I think there are a lot of topics that are better left for serious reflection rather than comedy," Gibbs said May 12. "I think there's no doubt that 9/11 is part of that."
In his turn at the dinner's microphone, Obama joked: "(Senior Adviser) David (Axelrod) and I have been together for a long time. … I think back to that day that I called Ax so many years ago and said, 'You and I can do wonderful things together,' and he said to me the same thing that partners all across America are saying to one another right now: 'Let's go to Iowa and make it official.'"
