| I saw most of this... it was wonderful, and Bill's choosing to vote for Kerry this election speaks volumes because he's a staunch libertarian, but feels that it's too important to get Bush out of office and start to repair the damage and heal...read the transcript! Some snippets follow, but to read it in full is well worth your time in my opinion:
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MAHER: It hasn't always been tough, and I do love time off, but this period has been tough because so much has been going on. I mean, I never thought that I would see so many things in the world and happen to our country that made me sad, angry. I mean, did you ever think it would get any lower than hearing people brag that our torture wasn't as bad as Saddam's? You know, you hear that. People say, Well, he -- you know, he killed a lot more people. I am so proud -- I am just so proud to be an American, Larry, that our torture wasn't as bad as Saddam Hussein's torture.
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KING: Is all this, then, hypocrisy to you?
MAHER: What? Which part of it? I mean, there's so many aspects of it that are. Yes. But I do think that President Bush relies on hypocrisy. You know, even if you give him a credit that he's a nice guy and this was a sincere effort, you know, it's one thing to run an election based on two-dimensional platitudes, like, They hate us for our freedom. It's another thing to send men to die for a platitude like that.
I honestly think that a lot of these people who have died over there, perhaps all of them, will have died in vain because they screwed up this plan so badly that we'll never know if democracy can take hold in Iraq. I mean, under the best conditions, this might not have worked. But considering how badly they screwed it up from the day after that they pulled Saddam's statue down, I don't think it's possible that democracy is going to be able to grow there, and then these people will have died in vain.
KING: Should any heads roll? Should Rumsfeld leave?
MAHER: Rumsfeld.
KING: Where does the buck stop?
MAHER: I still like Rumsfeld a lot. I can't help it. And he is at least honest and direct. When he was called on the carpet, he said, I apologize, as opposed to Bush's -- remember Bush's apology? He said, I told the king of Jordan I was sorry about the prison scandal. Imagine apologizing to your wife that way? Honey, I told my producer that I'm sorry I slept with your sister.
(LAUGHTER) MAHER: I mean, I don't think you'd get away with that. And also, when somebody, I think it was -- I forget -- Lindsey Graham, I think, said to Donald Rumsfeld, he said, What about quitting just as a way of saying to the rest of the world we're really sorry about this happening and we've turned over a new leaf? Do you think that would help? And Rumsfeld went, Quite possibly. And I think that's a good reason we need to get President Bush out of office. And this isn't a commercial against President Bush, but same principle obtains, as a way to say to the rest of the world we are turning over a new leaf.
KING: Bill Maher usually takes no prisoners, so we'll ask his thoughts on Mr. Kerry.
MAHER: And when I do, I don't torture them.
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MAHER: I mean, that's the thing. We're still treating this president with kid gloves. I mean, if anybody...
KING: That's not kid gloves, they're making fun of him. MAHER: Yes, but the people who aren't comedians are treating him that way. I mean, what we let him get away from -- no wonder he loves that T-ball. He gets to hit from the tee, don't you think so? I mean, remember when he went before the 9/11 commission and he said, I have to do with my vice president? Can you imagine any other president doing that? Couldn't you imagine LBJ saying, I need Humphrey? I want you to see my body language. Can you imagine Nixon? Spiro Agnew is going to come with me on this. You know, I...
KING: OK, let's...
MAHER: ... mean, his answer to the commission -- he got out of there, he said, I answered all the questions. That's where we have the bar for this president, I answered all the questions. I mean, I think it's...
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[BTW, it was extremely unusual regarding the people that phoned in -- usually there are people dialing in to attack Bill Maher and annihilate Bill's credibility, or to attack his views -- there was none, zero, nyet, nil, a big fat goose-egg number of calls to contradict Bill's POV -- curiouser and curiouser...] I urge y'all to read the transcript.
..Pax
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