Bill Maher: better than ever

Bill Maher's HBO show, Real Time With Bill Maher, has been better than ever. I've been watching him for years, but quite frankly, since the presidential primaries began, his show has been mandatory viewing. Frankly, it's my favorite political show on television; even better than Countdown With Keith Olbermann, and not for a reason you might think.

I like Maher because he has guests on his show who disagree with him, and usually what viewers are treated to is reasonable political debate among those who disagree. And, you get lots of laughs, too. Take a look at his always funny and sage New Rules from last Friday's show, and you'll know what I mean. (And this wasn't even one of his best New Rules segments, either.)

Maher's show this past Friday had a more conservative lineup than is his norm, and there was plenty of dissent, disagreement and debate, and I thought a few pieces of it were worth noting. Two of Maher's guests were of the very conservative stripe: David Frum (right), a former speech writer for President Bush, and Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA). These two guys unleashed a number of whoppers that are worth mentioning.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with these two, Frum is the genius who is loosely credited with coining the term Axis of Evil (originally he wrote, in the spirit of the Christian Right, Axis of Hatred.) He most recently signed on to become Rudy Giuliani's chief foreign policy advisor for his presidential campaign back in October. I guess with all Rudy's, ahem, success, Frum's got plenty of time on his hands now. As for Kingston, this guy is a piece of work. When Democrats took over the House in the fall of '06, it was announced that the House would be working five days a week. An outraged Kingston, according to WaPo, whined, "Democrats could care less about families" and that they "damage families." Aww, poor baby - a five-day work week!

As much as I love Maher, he really needs to rethink who he invites on his show. Not long after Friday's show began, Kingston (left) took it upon himself to question Obama's patriotism by citing the thoroughly debunked story that "Obama didn't put his hand over his heart during the pledge of allegiance" as if it were fact, and also by further denouncing him for "not wearing an American flag lapel pin." Are you kidding me? What's worse, Maher just made a joke about it and let it go. C'mon Bill - strap a set on and let this guy have it. (More very soon on the Obama Pledge of Allegiance lie in a separate post.)

I'm already sick and tired of hearing both Obama's and Hillary's patriotism being questioned. What kind of country do we now live in where a presidential candidate now has to wear a flag lapel pin, or he or she is painted as being unpatriotic. Kingston's lapel pin comments could be one of the stupidest things I've ever heard come out of someone's mouth on a political talk show.

Kingston also poked fun at the fact that both Obama and Clinton have pledged to meet with America's enemies, saying words to the effect that "Barack Hussein Obama" planned to go around the world and "hug people like Raul Castro." Notice the reference to Obama's middle name, Hussein. Yet another pathetically sad attempt to smear Obama.

Things also heated up quite nicely when the subject of McCain's military service came up. In the judgment of many, myself included, McCain is to be commended for his military service, including his suffering as a POW for over five years in a North Vietnamese prison camp. As admirable as it was and is, that alone does not qualify him to be president, especially when he rattles the war swords about once a week. When Maher said this on Friday, Frum jumped all over him. The exchange:

Frum: "Are you suggesting that it's going to be a good line of attack that McCain and his family have served the country [in the military] for too many generations?"

Maher: "No, but I don't think it's a good thing when someone thinks it's a natural state to be at war. And I do think he believes that."

Amen to that. Foreign policy is supposed to be McCain's strong suit, but so far I haven't heard anything to indicate that that reputation has been earned.

If anything, McCain has made himself look downright foolish, if not a hate monger, but saying things like our troops could end up staying in Iraq "for 100 years" and that he hopes Fidel Castro dies soon. I guess that's what you'd call Straight Talk, huh, Maverick?

It also annoys me to no end that Maher constantly has GOP hack pollster Frank Luntz (right) on the show, too. This Fox Noise Channel regular is more irritating than an IRS tax audit, yet Maher continues to bring him back. I think it's letter writing time to let Bill know that Luntz is taking away from his show, not adding to it. (More on Luntz shortly in another post, too.)

However, Maher has other regulars on who are every bit as good as Luntz is bad, though. His new semi-regular correspondent is noted author and Rolling Stone columnist Matt Taibbi. This guy is a rare reporter who gives is to you with the bark off - he's not afraid to take shots at anyone who he feels is a phony. I'm currently reading his latest book, Smells Like Dead Elephants. I'll write a review when I'm done.

Anyway, the show, on balance, is terrific - check it out on HBO every Friday at 11 p.m. EST.