Ale to the Chief!

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I couldn't resist. Neither could anyone else. Heh.

HuffPo

Late-night comics found a few things to laugh about in the racially charged arrest of a Harvard professor – once beer was added to the equation.

"Alcohol usually cools things off – have you noticed that?" CBS' David Letterman said on Tuesday night.

Letterman joked that Vice President Joe Biden has already been put to work buying a keg for the meeting.

"They'll come over, one beer will lead to two, two will lead to nine, next thing you know everyone will forget that they were ever mad at each other," he said. "They'll start doing Jaeger shots out of Betsy Ross' thimble. They'll make prank phone calls on the Red Phone. Someone will be like, `Let's TP the Capitol building!'"

Hughley doesn't believe the Gates incident was a case of racial profiling, and thought it wouldn't have escalated if the professor had known one of his neighbors had called the police. He also doesn't think it will be a lasting issue.

"If Al Sharpton ain't marching, then it ain't a big deal," he said.

Colbert noted that police had dropped charges on Gates even though "he committed the perfect crime, robbing his own home. Think about it. He knew exactly when he wouldn't be home."

Comedy Central also flew in Larry Wilmore from California, identified as the show's "senior black correspondent," for the most direct jokes at Gates' expense on late-night TV.

He showed a picture of the stocky professor and asked, "What's his black anthem? We shall overeat?"

Wilmore noted that Gates had said "yo mama" during his confrontation with Crowley.

"How many decades has he been holding that in?" Wilmore said. "Did he call him a jive turkey, too?"

Wilmore did have one thing in common with white comics: He couldn't resist a beer joke.

"Alcohol – that'll end well," he said. "Booze isn't how you resolve a racial conflict. It's how you start one."

Daniel Kurtzman's Political Humor Blog

"Of course, this could be trouble, because the last time Obama got a few beers in him, he bought General Motors." --Conan O'Brien

Bush was so incompetent he couldn'ta thrown a beer bash in a brewery if the snacks were already there. Obama has yet again proved his mental superiority, like he has every single day of his term so far.

On the technical side, Prof Gates apparently got a Sam Adams instead of his preferred Jamaican Red Stripe, the cop had a Blue Moon, which sounds like something I'd do on a cold day, and the Prez had a fine Belgian beer, a Bud Light.

Peanuts and pretzels were served. This bunch was smart enough not to choke on the pretzels.

No word on whether the partygoers climbed up to third floor balcony and had a contest to see who could piss as far as the Rose Garden, or who won.

Just as an aside, I once saw a Marine chew the top off a can of Red Stripe to get at the contents. There were three of us walking along on Vieques and some guys threw us three Red Stripes from a truck. We didn't have a church key (this was a long time ago!) so he did it three times!

I think the Presidential beer party was a very nice bit of symbolism if nothing else.

Update:

El Rude-o chimes in:

As you probably surmised, that's the array of malty, hoppy beverages sucked down by President Barack Obama, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Cambridge police officer James Crowley at their meeting (the photo is inaccurate, although it's a lovely still life - and do they really make Obama/presidential seal coasters?). And guess who drank the faggy, sweet Blue Moon? Surely the effete President or the effeter Professor. Nope. Obama demonstrated his man o' the people cred with the Bud Light. Gates, honoring America's founders the same way Harvard frat boys do, drank a Sam Adams Light (Nothing 'light' about Gates' beer in the above photo. Darkest one there. Damn racist camera. . .G). (Why was it originally reported he drank a Red Stripe? Because it's from Jamaica, where a lot of black people live? Racist fucking media...) And the Belgian longneck was deep-throated by Sgt. Crowley. With a slice of orange. Biden drank kiddie beer.

No, the problems of race weren't solved at the White House biergarten. But, as they slurped down more and more suds, things got a bit randy, as Skip Gates asked Crowley if he'd like the slave experience just to, you know, understand oppression a bit more. With a knowing smirk, Crowley responded that if Gates had the chains, he had the wrists. "Why don't you two get a room?" Biden exclaimed. Obama rolled his eyes, walked away, having had enough of this bullshit distraction, and told the Secret Service to let the Professor and the Cop have a couple of hours in the Lincoln Bedroom, where Gates could continue the lesson.

Ooooh...