Clinton to Conan: Drop Booker, Go Back to Mocking My Pantsuits
Secretary of State tells Booker, Conan to stand down
By JENNIFER MILLMAN
Updated 4:26 PM EDT, Fri, Oct 9, 2009
The feud between Newark Mayor Cory Booker and "Tonight Show" host Conan O'Brien has gotten so heated that the nation's preeminent master of conflict resolution -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- is staging an intervention.
It turns out the former First Lady-turned-senator-turned-chief diplomat has a sense of humor – or at least someone in her office does.
"I've been following the ongoing feud between Conan and Newark Mayor Cory Booker with great interest," Clinton said in a video appearance on the "Tonight Show" last night. "And by this I mean, I haven't been following this feud at all, but my staff just gave me the gist of it five minutes ago."
Clinton went on to say that since it's her job to make peace between warring parties – whether they're nations around the globe or a mid-sized American city versus a mildly amusing talk-show host – she had to make a point to tell everyone the top 10 reasons why Conan and Cory had to make up.
Notice the play on Letterman's regular "top 10" skit. Nice one, Hil!
The battle between Conan and Booker started a few weeks ago when Conan made a joke about Newark that Booker didn't appreciate.
"Let's just chalk it up to Conan's head injury and be done with this whole mess," Clinton said. Then Booker can go back to leading Newark to prosperity and growth and Conan can go back to "dancing around the stage and making lame jokes about my pantsuits."
"Thank you. And Conan, please don’t bother me again."
We'll see if Clinton's peace-making attempts hold up. The back-and-forth between Conan and Cory has escalated into an all out word war between cities, airports and everything in between.
After hearing Clinton had stepped in, Booker on Friday said he was "very excited that the Secretary of State has intervened."
"We've got to bury the hatchet, celebrate the city of Newark and hopefuly get Conan to respect that," Booker said.
Booker had initially banned Conan from Newark and then from the entire state of New Jersey, but earlier this week he lifted the ban so the comedian could come see what a wonderful city Newark is. (Cough.) Then he showed a photo of Conan in patent leather. Hmm ...
Conan banned Booker from Burbank Airport and then said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger banned him from the state of California, but we've yet to get confirmation on the latter. Then there was some garble about aligning with Newark's neighboring towns to flush New Jersey's biggest city down the figurative toilet – or something.
Whatever. We just want to see them face off on live TV.
First Published: Oct 9, 2009 9:33 AM EDT on NBC New York
You Might Like
You have 2000 characters left
