“Does anybody know what the difference between a bulldog and a hockey mom is?” Bob Barr, former Republican member of Congress and now the Libertarian presidential candidate, asks. “The bulldog gets vetted!”

Barr’s joke elicits a roar of laughs and a couple of “oh’s!” among the audience at the 15th Annual Funniest Celebrity in Washington Contest.

The annual fundraiser is an opportunity for pols, pundits and journos to challenge Washington’s reputation as a stiff, self-serious town — and also a good measure of what topics in the political zeitgeist are particularly ripe for ridicule at the moment. This year, John McCain’s vetting process in his hunt for a vice presidential candidate was a repeated theme.

When Mike Huckabee, former Governor of Arkansas and Republican primary contender, took over the microphone, he joked that he was hurt by McCain’s decision not to ask him to join the GOP ticket.

“John McCain didn’t even vet me,” Huckabee said. “But he didn’t vet Sara Palin either.”

It’s clearly nothing more than a joke, the vet Sarah Palin line, that is, but that didn’t stop ABC News and several other outlets from taking the ball and running with it. So, do you think he’s funny?

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