Bill Maher is back, & better than ever

This morning I got a chance to watch the first new episode of Real Time With Bill Maher, and boy, did I miss him. Above is his opening monologue, and it was one of his better ones. He's an important liberal voice in the media, and I sure look forward to hearing his shows from now until the November election.

And the panel on his show Friday night was good as well, particularly NPR's Michelle Martin - who is no pushover sheep; she really added to the discussion, and best of all, she doesn't simply nod in agreement with all of Maher's points. Now here's hoping that this fall he doesn't bring back his most annoying and moronic guest of all, GOP pollster Frank Luntz. I enjoy hearing competing points of view, but Luntz is a GOP stooge masquerading as a mainstream poll.

However, my favorite segment from Maher's show last night was his infamous New Rules (as is often the case). Maher really took aim at critics (mostly Republican) of John Edwards, who really is the Democratic Party's most prominent, effective voice when it comes to poverty.

I'm not defending Edwards' actions in his personal life - it takes a special sort of dirt bag to cheat on your wife while she's suffering from cancer. But there was plenty of knee-jerk reaction to his adultery. I'd have Google money if I had a dollar every time I heard people, many of them Democrats, say in the wake of the outing of Edwards' affair, "Thank GOD he's not the nominee!" Well, I guess that's true, because the adulterating conservative rubes like Newt Gingrich, Dick Morris, etc. would have derided him mercilessly (and of course, hypocritically).

Of course, as Maher points out, McCain gets a pass for cheating on his first wife - it gets virtually NO discussion in our disgraceful corporate media. McCain's backers would no doubt shout, "But that was over 30 years ago!" Fair enough, but again, it still goes to character, just like the fact that he very publicly called his wife a "cunt" during one of his infamous tirades in the 1990s.

Don't get me wrong - I think politicians' private lives should stay private, but there should be no double standards, but there certainly has been considering the political sex scandals dating back to the Clinton Impeachment.

As Maher sagely points out, some of our most effective presidents in the last 100 years have strayed in their personal lives; FDR, Eisenhower, JFK, Clinton; while some of our most disgraceful presidents have, by all accounts, remained faithful; Carter, Nixon, Reagan, and most of all, President Bush 41 and our current National Embarrassment, President George W. Bush.

Maher's show is as much of a must-see as The Daily Show - it can't be missed. In fact, it's reason enough to get HBO, if you need one more.