My guess is that since W. had to be strong-armed into the dinner and the white tie by Condi and Laura, he rejected even talk of any invitations to "eggheads." The guest list was as crass as the man himself and a perfect summation of a shameful, low-rent presidency.

A lady poet shared with Salon her reasons for turning the Bush invitation down. Sorry, I've forgotten the poet's name.

Her reasons were related to the President's "war of choice", among other things. Looks like those low poll numbers are earned.

I'm not sure who should spanked bush jnr or bush senior for allowing his degenerate son to get so far, or for helping him get so far, in the pic he, jnr, looks like a deranged lunatic, no offense to lunacy.

Snarky, but true, description of the supreme sophist. Brooks is an unctious handwringer to power. Bye bye.

I disagree with Royaly.

That was a cheap snarky shot at the British. Much like the anti-French comments in recent years.

No, fact is this Repubplican president is an embarrassment.

To his country. To his party. To his family.

Hey, cheers. You "won" in 2000 and 2004. Uh, I guess.

We've been hearing for two weeks that this dinner was "the most formal event of the Bush administration", "the only white tie dinner". If the photo accompanying the story is accurate, then that description is false: the men are wearing tuxedos, with black tie. Can the press not even get a simple fact like this correct? The detail itself isn't important, but the misrepresentation seems like just another instance of sloppy reporting -- the White House tells its version of the story, and it's repeated without question. As in small things, so in larger.

...compared with her kid Prince Charles, and compared with her uncle the Duke of Windsor. And her grandchildren are okay too: Prince Harry is in Iraq wearing body armor.

And it's okay that George W. invited the jockey, because the Queen likes and knows horses. But the Queen knows horses' asses too. And she deserves a lot of credit for keeping her mouth shut about Horse's Ass G. W. Bush and his twin Horse's Ass Tony Blair.

G.W. Bush probably would torture the Queen if he thought he could get away with it. Under U.S. law, while she was here, he could have sent her to Guantanamo with no charge and no explanation, since she is not a U.S. citizen.

She was very brave even to come here. I hope she is safely back home in her civilized country, out of G.W. Bush's grasp.

1.The WaPo version of the black sheep anecdote doesn't make the least bit of sense. Why would "Bar" need to instruct the queen not to answer Junior? Surely she could be counted on to have sufficient good sense and reserve without any special pleading from our queen mother.

The version I've heard has Bush,jr making a supposedly clever comment met with silence, then adding nervously, "I guess I've always been regarded as the black sheep in my family," with the Queen responding by asking him if he agreed with his family's assessment, and him shooting back, "I guess so, who's yours?" At which point the queen, angered at being set up like that, simply excused herself and walked away.

2.Although I'm no great fan of the concept of royalty, especially disliking the American version, I think this comment is completely unwarranted:

"Actually Dubya and the Queen are a good match. American Royalty and British Royalty. An ignorant, obnoxious, unread American and an arrogant, worthless, inbred Brit."

Elizabeth pleaded with her father the king to let her join the Royal Army in 1945 where she became a driver, at a time when the idea of ordinary women serving even an auxillary military function still seemed novel, let alone a royal. By contrast, we all know about Junior's military service.

Look at that photo: the Queen and Prince Philip look great for their ages, and the rest just look good for their IQ's. Barbara looks like she just spiked the fondue.

Laura, sweetie - black tie and dirndl?

Cathcurtis,

If you will read the caption under the picture accompanying the article you will see that the picture was not from the white tie state dinner, but from a different event at the British Embassy.

Took a look at the photo, rubbed my eyes, looked again and then read the article. Maybe it's my age or state of mind, but wasn't this whole affair preordained in an old showing of the Beverly Hillbilies, or was that Andy Of Mayberry? Gomer Pyle, USMC? Sheesh, or could it have been my rarebit dream?? I don't know. Time was, folks were at least a little bit ashamed to display their ignorance and umworldy ways (Dubya as an alien???). Now it seems to be a badge of honor.

Laura looks ridiculous in that pic from the Embassy party. The dress looks like something you'd wear to a barbeque. The Queen looks okay there, but seems to go for silly looking hats elsewhere.

It's odd that Babs and Daddy weren't at the State dinner. Nor were any other former presidents. The guest list seemed extremely undignified And Sid forgot to mention the reporters who were invited--it's a sign of where journalistic ethics have gone. No WH reporter should have attended.

The Queen looks good compared with her feckless, inbred family. Taken together, they are a pretty good match for the Bushes. Phillip's world view is pretty authoritarian and, of course, Chuckles is about as classy as the Bush twins. Plus there's alcoholism (Elizabeth's pathetic sister and daughter. It makes sense that the Queen mother drank, too.

He turned to the queen, smirked, winked, paused and then said to the crowd, "She gave me a look that only a mother could give a child."

It's more likely that she gave him the kind of look that only a born aristocrat could give a man who has shown himself to be hopelessly and irretrievably lower class.