Bill Maher: Obama's Secretary Of Dumb

Despite the fact that they don't have George W. Bush to kick around any more, the pathological need that comedians and other celebrities have to put their ignorance on display clearly hasn't taken a hiatus.

Bill Maher can be a funny guy, but he really knows very little about politics or policy. So it's absolutely infuriating when this guy gets an hour on Larry King Live to pretend he's a pundit. That must be what he's doing because in this interview he's not funny at all. He's just angry.

For God's sake, this is the guy who says he's a "Libertarian"! Does he not know what that word means?

Here are some of the dumber things the HBO talk host said in his last venting session with King.

On the Stimulus:

"He offered what they wanted -- the tax cuts, which really are not stimulus. And he should have said from the beginning, look, I won the election, OK? We're going do it my way now. We tried that idea -- that tax cuts solve every problem. We had that. And that's what got us into this mess."

First off, anyone who still can't admit that tax cuts stimulate the economy is living in a partisan dream world. It's been proven time and time again that tax cuts, especially those which are targeted toward the people who pay the lion's share of the taxes, have a stimulative effect. It was true when Kennedy did it. It was true when Reagan did it and it was true when George W. Bush did it. Hopefully these smaller tax cuts will have a similar effect, but don't tell me that tax cuts don't work. If anything, it is yet to be proven that the heavily Keynesian approach that Obama is taking, works. So on this front Maher doesn't know what he's talking about.

In addition the idea that Republicans believe that tax cuts "solve everything" as well as the idea that that tax cuts are what got us "into this mess" are little more than Democratic talking points aimed at the folks that don't understand how the current financial crisis came about. No one thinks that tax-cuts "solve everything" but don't put up a false choice in order to help Obama push through his agenda. I thought Maher was above that.

On Judd Gregg:
"I guess his Republican friends got to him -- you know, like the mob."

Right. You see this statement shows us that Maher believes that Gregg had no political convictions. I would be interested to see what Maher thinks about Obama's decision to completely politicize the census. This was the real reason Gregg left and will have sweeping ramifications in regard to....


Political demographics:

"You know, I hope that they're looking at what he's doing, because he's going to Republican areas. He went to Indiana -- a Republican district. He went to Florida. When he read that onstage: "The stimulus package passed," they all cheered."

Just because Obama was in a Republican district doesn't mean that their are no Democratic Obama worshipers in that particular place. Every Democrat in the county is going to come out for the chosen one. And of course folks like Julio are going to cheer for Obama. That's his base. A guy like Julio would cheer for Obama if Obama told him that the government was going to provide him with a helper monkey to organize his bong collection. Why was Maher surprised by this?

"You know, the people, I think, are on his page. And, you know, I think we need one more election to get rid of some of these mossbacks who just don't get it. I mean they're taking their orders -- their marching orders from Rush Limbaugh. He is effectively the head of the Republican Party right now.....I think they're absolutely following Rush. And that's how clueless that party is. They looked to find the future, and they found radio."

The word "mossback" has two definitions. I think Maher was using it in order to infer that the G.O.P is old-fashioned and reactionary. Unless he was calling us all large sluggish fish.

It's incredibly ironic that any celebrity who suddenly became a political expert during the Bush years, would lecture the G.O.P. on being "reactionary". This is especially true in the case of Maher who once discussed the benefits of having Dick Cheney killed with his crack panel which generally consists of Krauthammer like intellects such as Eve Ensler, author of "The Vagina Monologues" and Mos Def, who penned the classic political anthem "Ms. Fat Booty".

Now, it's true. I do believe that Rush Limbaugh is the most powerful guy in the party at the moment, and Liberals keep telling us that this is a bad thing. (Me thinks they doth protest too much.) I'm not sure how they're arriving at this conclusion since like tax cuts, talk radio has proven time and time again to be a very effective G.O.P stimulus, which is exactly what our party needs right now. For all of you who think that Limbaugh is just some dope with a microphone and that Maher is somehow more enlightened or thoughtful, I encourage you to listen to the two of them opine back to back. Listen to them for five minutes and it's obvious that Limbaugh is far more well-read on matters political. It's analysis (if not always incredibly deep) vs. talking point generated laugh lines aimed at Republicans.

For a long time I thought Maher was a bit more like John Stewart and that his constant mockery of George Bush was just a comedian being a comedian. If figured that when the next president rode into to town he wouldn't give that guy the benefit of the doubt either, in the name of laughter. However it's now clear that not only is Maher a liberal, but that he's also a shill for President Obama.

The media got what they wanted in President Obama. It's now time for them to stop giving ignorant, partisan celebrities a platform to play pundit. If Maher wants to discuss silly, unimportant, liberal favorites such as his contention that organized religion is the root of all evil let him do it. But don't encourage him to start spewing nonsense when it comes to important issues like the economy and foreign policy. Someone might actually take him seriously and there is far too much at stake right now to give Maher any real power.

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