He's Chevy Chase and You're Not (Be Very Happy Edition)

Two nights ago, at a People for the American Way (PAW) event in D.C., former funnyman Chevy Chase laid into President Bush (har har, funny) with his trademark wit and panache. So much so that PAW distanced themselves from the Saturday Night Live stalwart quicker than audiences distanced themselves from Under the Rainbow.

Snippets courtesy of the Wash Post:

Chase took the stage a final time and unleashed a rant against President Bush that stunned the crowd. He deployed the four-letter word that got Vice President Cheney in hot water, using it as a noun. Chase called the prez a "dumb [expletive]." He also used it as an adjective, assuring the audience, "I'm no [expletive] clown either. . . . This guy started a jihad."

Chase also said: "This guy in office is an uneducated, real lying schmuck."

That said, Chase did focus ire on the audience itself. After the above bon mot, he noted, "and we still couldn't beat him with a bore like Kerry."

People for the American Way distanced itself yesterday from the actor's rant. "Chevy Chase's improvised remarks caught everyone off guard, and were inappropriate and offensive," Ralph Neas, the liberal advocacy group's president, said in a statement. "It was not what I would have said, and certainly not the language People for the American Way would ever use in discussing any president of the United States."

Whole thing here.

[Tip o' pen to Baylen at the Drug Policy Alliance.]