Bush Marks 100th Day With One-Liners

WASHINGTON —  President Bush celebrated his 100th day in office Saturday by bringing along comedian Garry Shandling to help poke fun at himself at the White House Correspondents’ Assn. dinner.

“I’ll tell you how nifty, how swell--gosh, what fun it is to be President,” Bush joked in a speech to the reporters, editors and guests.

Shandling said Bush had pulled him from a line at a White House tour earlier in the day and asked him to perform at the dinner. “I thought he was joking because I’d really never taken him seriously before,” the comedian said.

Bush promised the reporters some hard news: “My first nominee to the Supreme Court--John Tower. What we need is a little justice,” he said, referring to the diminutive former Texas senator who was rejected as secretary of defense.

The President drew his biggest laugh by telling the audience he was relieved that “there won’t be time tonight for my slide shows of the trip to Honduras.” Bush has refused recently to comment on his trip to Honduras as vice president during a time when, according to documents released during Oliver L. North’s trial, the Reagan Administration was seeking aid for the Nicaraguan rebels from other countries at a time U.S. aid was outlawed by Congress.

Bush joked that at least the incoming president of the correspondents’ group, Johanna Neuman of USA Today, “can blame her troubles on her predecessor.” Some Bush aides were chastised recently for comparing his work habits too favorably with Ronald Reagan’s.