A Holiday Video With a Bite

Looking for a healthy sense of self-mockery from the Bush White House? Like Christmas, it comes only once a year: In the form of a holiday video featuring the presidential pets.

This season's offering is just out, titled "A Very Beazley Christmas." The full, 10-minute version is available on the White House Web site in a Real Media and Windows Media versions. A four-minute edited version is available on washingtonpost.com.

It's a worthy successor to previous efforts (see barney.gov for more), with several tongue-in-cheek references to the current political climate.

The new video's premise is that Barney, the Bush's longtime Scottish terrier, is jealous of all the positive attention being paid to Miss Beazley, a more recent addition.

In an amusing riff on polling, Lynne Cheney lectures Barney: "Ooh, Barney, have you seen the latest presidential pet poll numbers? Not good! The numbers are way down. But don't worry about it; remember poll numbers are just a snapshot in time. That's right."

I'm not sure this one was intentionally funny, but it was: Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez squats down obsequiously before Barney's rival and says: "Miss Beazley, great job today. Listen I have the information here that you requested. Our unemployment is declining, we're creating a lot of jobs, and you're doing a great job, Miss Beazley."

President Bush himself makes an appearance. He calls both dogs into the Oval Office for a lecture on getting along. "Now Miss Beazley, I understand you're being a media hound," he says.

The video also features guest appearances by Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr., Treasury Secretary John Snow and several journalists, including George Stephanopoulous, who appears from the set of ABC News's "This Week."

There's even a mock C-Span segment, in which anchor Steve Scully asks those who support Miss Beazley to call (202) 456-1415; others are asked to call (202) 456-1416. (Both, in reality, are "non-working numbers" at the White House.)

First lady Laura Bush wraps things up by saying: "President Bush and I wish everyone a happy holiday."

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