Greta Van Susteren with Todd Palin at the 2009 WHCInsider Garden Brunch

She may be big in prime time at Fox News, but Greta Van Susteren began her Washington career as a Justice Department intern and CNN contributor. Today she celebrates her 8th anniversary as the host of “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.”

She is the only woman who has regularly delivered top ratings in primetime cable. She has traveled more miles and interviewed more newsmakers than her competition, while being the first prime time host to do a regular web show. Check out Fox’s full-page ad in today’s Wall Street Journal.

Before Rush Limbaugh became a Miss America judge, Van Susteren gained notoriety for making a pageant contestant pass out during her interview.

Click here for the video of Greta reflecting on some of her most memorable interviews.

Did Wanda Sykes go too far at the WHCD when she hoped Rush Limbaugh’s kidneys would fail, or with her joke that Limbaugh might have been the final 9-11 terrorist, but he overslept due to OxyContin?

From Fox News: “Did Wanda Sykes Go Too Far at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner?”

From The Los Angeles Times blog: “Does Sykes comedy routine deserve laughter or loathing?”

From The NY Daily News: “Obama Administration Distances Itself from Wanda Sykes’ 9/11-Rush Limbaugh Joke”

What do you think: Did Wanda go too far?

D.C. Comedy Pro Richard Siegel Reviewed Sykes Performance for WHCInsider

What is the hardest job in the country? It’s to follow President Obama.  Wanda Sykes, grabbed the microphone, commanded the stage; she was bold, not over the top, brash  not X-rated, cool, calm, collected and yes, very funny. She stunned the audience numerous times, as people would look around, dressed in their black tie attire, wondering if it was okay to laugh.  No subject was out of bounds.  Wanda knew how far to go, knew her boundaries, attacked every target, but did not get too racy nor leave any subject alone.   Sykes talked about Obama’s nipples when he appears without a shirt, and of course, discussed the “legacy” of Bush, the guest who stayed in your house and got out of town before you noticed that he broke everything.
 
As I watched Wanda confidently address the country and the journalists, I felt like a proud parent. I have watched Wanda grow from an open mike comedienne and comedy contestant in the 80s to what she is today, a major force in comedy.  Her style has changed, as in the early days her sarcasm was one of her most powerful weapons. Tonight, it was her charm, confidence and charisma that stood out.

 
A few jokes got gasps, about teachers sleeping with their students, and the Bush shoe jokes fell flat.  But I admire her nerve, taking on Rush Limbaugh, as the 20th hijacker, messed up on OxyContin, Dick Cheney for his defense of torture, Biden for his tendency to speak off-the-cuff. There are many who will challenge her material and ability, simply because she tackled her subjects with voracity. Nothing was taboo including President Obama’s basketball skill.   But as Lenny Bruce did in the early days of comedy and Colbert did a couple years ago with his attack on George Bush, being a pioneer in comedy doesn’t make you popular.
 
The proud parent watched as his child grew up, 20 years later, relying on her charm and her scathing words to follow a rock star.   She didn’t need her sarcasm or her X-rated material.  All she needed was her stage presence, impeccable delivery, guile, irreverence and solid material. I will watch the critics and pundits certainly attack her because of her shock value.   But I will watch more closely at Wanda Sykes’s career, as she soars to new heights as a social commentator and the powerful comedienne she has become.

Check out Siegel’s comments elsewhere on WHCInsider about Wanda’s first comedy contest: How Local Girl Wanda Sykes Made Good Using Bad Words

Unlike Jay Leno and David Letterman, whose shows run Monday through Friday nights, Sykes’s will air only on Saturdays. But much like Leno, Letterman and other talk show hosts, the Emmy Award-winning Sykes comes from a background of stand-up comedy that’s rooted in current events — the staple of pretty much all yakkers.
 
Late-night talk shows also thrive on political humor, though hosts generally try to aim their barbs at both sides of the aisle. But at a Human Rights Campaign dinner she emceed last March, Sykes struck a decidedly partisan (and potty-mouthed) note, taking on Rush Limbaugh’s then-recent declaration that he hoped President Barack Obama “fails” in just about anything he attempts to do.
 
As noted on the Website wilshireandwashington.com, Sykes referred to Republicans in general as “evil people…they’re just nasty,” then said of Limbaugh’s comment: “What the hell? What kind of bullshit is that? So he says screw everybody else. ‘Screw everybody, I just want to win!’ That’s treason, right? I’m like, ‘Let’s not close Guantanamo, send Rush Limbaugh’s big ass over there! He’s a terrorist!’”
 
Sykes revealed in November 2008 that she is gay, after marrying her partner of two-years in October.  Sykes has also advised those opposed to same-sex marriage — usually conservatives — simply not to marry someone of the same sex. Problem solved!
 
The nominally bipartisan spirit of the White House Correspondents Dinner would likely require similar observations of liberals/Democrats, or possibly prefer no such observations at all. But on her own show, Sykes will likely be under no such obligation, and, since it is slated for an 11:00 p.m. start, she’ll be operating outside the reach of the Federal Communications Commission’s indecency cops (whose shift runs only from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., per federal regulations).
 
Sykes has been a hit on the stand-up circuit as well as in movies and television ever since quitting her NSA job in 1992. On HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” she played herself in several episodes, sometimes stealing scenes from the show’s hard-to-upstage star, Larry David. She’s currently on the CBS comedy, “The New Adventures of Old Christine.”

 
Sykes and Fox had their first fling in 2003, but some thought it ended a little prematurely, at least from the comedian’s point of view. The network yanked her sitcom “Wanda At Large” after only 19 episodes. “Yes, my relationship with Fox hasn’t been the best,” Sykes said in a network press release about the new talk show. “But if Rihanna can go back to Chris Brown, I can go back to Fox. Oprah tried to talk me out of it, but I think Fox has changed.”
 
Sykes doesn’t seem to have changed a bit, and that could make her fellow diners on May 9 or her talk show guests next fall really laugh — or squirm.
 
–William Triplett