The White House Correspondents' Dinner can be pain in the rear, with its smug, self-congratulatory preening by politicians, journos and comedians, the endless in-jokes, the irrelevant celebs (why Lindsay Lohan, for heaven's sake?) But irritating as it can be, it is powerful on another level. It celebrates a healthy public skepticism towards those in power. Try to imagine Muamar Gaddafi, Hitler, Stalin or Mamhoud Ahmedinehjad standing before an audience and making jokes about themselves. Not gonna happen. Tyrants have no sense of humor. Thank God we still do.
