A SHRUB OF A DIFFERENT COLOR

A.P -- continuing to supply me with all-too-easy material as if it were a pipeline -- reports today that after 5+ years, President Bush will make the first appearence of his presidency before the NAACP Convention this afternoon.

According to the piece, "every president for the past several decades has spoken to the Baltimore-based [NAACP]," but Bush, who garned only "11 percent of the black vote in 2004 . . . declined invitations to address the annual NAACP convention" for five straight years. This year, however, with his own GOP facing catastrophic losses in midterm election, as well as a battle in the Senate over the renewal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Bush decided to accept the invitation.

One of our White House insiders, Candida Blanco, has supplied us with an transcript of the President's final run-through of his speech. Some highlights, if I may:

"I'm very honored to be invited by y'all to speak at the convention of the National Association for the, for the Association a' Colored people. I know y'all like ta' talk about why I didn't come here last year. Or the year 'fore that. Or the . . . ya know, the other years too. But I like colored people. Always have. Always will. An' I always have. I love the colored people's food. All those great homemade foods and things. Lots a' good foods that celebrate the common traditions that y'all colored folks share with the white southerners. Cause the common Southern ancestry of the colored man and the white community is a cause for celebration. To, ya know, to celebrate our similarities and our diversity. An' our common . . . our common differences and, ya know, our similarities too. With the colored folks . . .

An' sometimes when a hurr'cane hits, ya jus' haveta' make do with the best ya can, ya know, to do. Brownie did do the best job he could do. An the accusations that I let the colored people, the colored folks an' their families and friends in New Orleans suffer on account a' race or somethin, well that's just a buncha hokum. Hokum, now that's a word that makes me think a the good times I had with colored folks, even if they weren't members of y'alls National Colored Peoples Association. Jeb an' Neil an' I, we had a wonnerful colored lady used ta' come in an' take care a us. She wasn't jus' a nanny, cause she'd cook up this great pork dish sometimes. Oh, an' yeah, she'd, ya know, she'd use that word "hokum" sometimes. Part a her lexography and language I guess . . .

So, it's just isn't true that I opposed renewing the Voting Act a '65, an' the fact a' my father opposin it is irrelevant. And unimportant. And not, ya know, its not germane an all. I wanna protect the rights a all Amer'cans, the colored man included. An woman too. Back in college, ya know, I had a friend or two, I admit, a friend or two that didn't like colored girls, but I never cared about that. I mean, look at Condi over here . . ."

More coverage of the final speech later on.