Queen Elizabeth, TonyBlair, George Bush and Karl Rove

On his trip to Great Britain, George Bush had a meeting with Queen Elizabeth. He asked her, "How does one manage to run a country so smoothly?"

That is easy, the Queen replied. "You surround yourself with intelligent ministers and advisers."

"But how can I tell whether they are intelligent?"

"You ask them a riddle," she replied, and with that she pressed a button and said, "Would you please send in Tony Blair."

The Queen asked the Prime Minister: "Your parents had a child and it was not your sister and it was not your brother. Who was this child?"

Blair replied, "That's easy. The child was me."

"Very good, "said the Queen, "You may go now."

So President Bush went back to Washington and called in his chief adviser, Karl Rove. He said to him, "I have a riddle for you, and the answer is very important. Your parents had a child and it was not your sister and it was not your brother. Who was this child?"

Rove replied, "Yes, it is clearly very important that we determine the answer, as No Child Must Be Left Behind. Can I deliberate on this for a while?"

"Yes," said President Bush, "I'll give you four hours to come up with the answer."

So Mr. Rove went and called a meeting of the White House Staff. He asked them the riddle. After much discussion and many suggestions, none of the staff members had a satisfactory answer. Karl Rove was quite upset, not knowing what he would tell the President.

As Rove was walking back to the Oval Office, he saw former Secretary of State Colin Powell approaching him.

So he said, "Mr. Secretary, can you answer this riddle for me? Your parents had a child and it was not your sister and it was not your brother. Who was the child?"

"That's easy," said Powell, "The child was me."

"Oh, thank you!" said Rove, "You may just have saved me my job!"

As the sun set slowly in the West, Mr. Rove went to the Oval Office and said to President Bush, "I think I know the answer to your riddle. The child was Colin Powell!"

"No, you idiot!" shouted President Bush. "The child was Tony Blair!"

Trust me,
Weird Wally