Bush vs. Borat

Maureen Dowd, in Jagshemash, Premier Bush, devotes her column to a comparison of George Bush and Borat Sagdiyev, a/k/a Sacha Baron Cohen. She explains:

Borat Sagdiyev, the Kazakh television reporter with the bushy mustache and cheap gray suit, showed up at the White House this week with an invitation for the man he calls the “mighty U.S. warlord.”

He wanted to invite “Premier George Walker Bush,” along with “other American dignitaries” . . . to a screening of his new documentary about his anti-Semitic, misogynistic, scatological trek across America, followed by a cocktail party/summit meeting . . . .

Borat, of course, is Sacha Baron Cohen, the successor to Peter Sellers, a wildly original and brainy Cambridge grad and observant Jew from a distinguished British family. His HBO characters, the rapper Ali G, the fashion reporter Bruno, and Borat, collide with reality, exposing prejudice and puncturing pomposity.

* * * *

Mr. Cohen is a genius at turning reality into farce, taking lowbrow humor to high places, but he has met his match in W.

With the publication of parts of the classified intelligence report showing that the Bush administration has expanded the terrorist threat, as well as the books “State of Denial” by Bob Woodward, “Hubris” by Michael Isikoff and David Corn, and “Fiasco” by Thomas Ricks, all detailing the bumbling and infighting of Bush officials on Iraq, it’s a tossup as to where we can find the most ludicrous, offensive and juvenile behavior — in the new Borat movie or the Bush White House.

For more Borat, see the video of the White House adventure thanks to Keith Olbermann of Countdown on Borat Goes To Washington. Blogger Eschaton also has some notes of the speech at Borat Speaks.

With the state of the world where it is, this is much better than the real thing.

And this post is dedicated to Julie, who loves Ali G.

(Dowd article also available at TENNESSEE GUERILLA WOMEN).

Tags: Commentary, Maureen Dowd, Countdown, Borat, Video