If it ever becomes too much for poor Gibbs, I’ve got a suggestion for a successor: Andrea Mitchell. Yesterday, the NBC correspondent demonstrated her PC credentials, slapping Pat Buchanan on the rhetorical wrist for speaking of “illegal aliens.”  Andrea was back at the ramparts today, defending PBO over his bow by . . . parroting the words of Stephen Colbert.

Morning Joe had run a clip of Colbert seeming at first to criticize PBO for the bow before segueing to sarcasm: “The president cannot debase himself and our country by bowing before the Saudi king. You hold his hand, kiss him on the cheek and re-orient our entire foreign policy over the last 20 years around securing his oil deposits.”  As he said the latter, Colbert rolled images of Pres. Bush holding hands and cheek-kissing the Saudi king.

When Mitchell later appeared, it was almost as if she had gotten hold of the Colbert transcript. After acknowledging that it was not protocol for an American president to bow, here’s how she replied to Joe Scarborough’s question as to whether she’d ever seen this happen before PBO: “you mean hug, kiss, grab their hands and walk through the Texas brush?”

Joe jumped all over that: “There is a difference between doing something that shows solidarity and equality with a fellow leader and actually bowing down to that leader.” Andrea had to agree, but made one last point on behalf of her guy: “Let me just say, he didn’t curtsy. I’ve seen Margaret Thatcher curtsy to a Saudi king.”

Well, there is that.

Andrea, we’re going to keep your resume on file here at the White House.