When the Enron scandal first broke, President George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, both well-endowed with energy-industry connections, sought to distance themselves from Enron executives, chief among them CEO Kenneth Lay.

South Carolina Senator Fritz Hollings one day simultaneously poked fun at Bill Clinton and Bush: "I," he had Bush declaring, "did not have political relations with that man, Ken Lay."

["Lay has sold all of his Enron stock," David Letterman declared. "I guess we all knew that. In fact, the only thing he owns now is the Bush administration." Leno's take? "Enron is now officially out of the energy business. They are now in a new business: confetti."]

["When that crazy gunman started firing shots at the White House [in 2001], the press spokesman said that Bush was working out in the gym while Vice President Dick Cheney was hard at work at his desk," Jay Leno once quipped. "See, now that the election's over, they're not even trying to hide who's really running the country anymore."]