With all the haters throwing shade at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, HOH couldn’t help but wonder whether any of our fellow reporting brethren still get anything (other than a vicious hangover) out of the booze-soaked weekend.  

Sure, critics are convinced the event has devolved into an orgy of media one-upmanship. And the crush of celebvocates paraded around at corporate-sponsored parties does tend to steal most of the thunder from the actual journalists being feted.  

Then again, sometimes one simply must embrace the absurdity of it all.  

At least that’s what Chris Johnson, the White House reporter for the Washington Blade, did a few years back when he came face to face with former Sen. Rick Santorum.  

“I asked him to take the shot with me out of irony because he opposes basically everything I stand for. The senator graciously agreed to take the photo,” the WHCD veteran — this weekend will mark his fifth time getting sequestered in the cavernous Washington Hilton ballroom — said of the chance run-in he had in 2012 with the deeply religious, sweater vest-hawking Pennsylvania Republican.  

Well played, Johnson.  

Confidence is high we’ve probably never seen two polar opposites so blatantly faking civility.  

Oh, wait …  

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