I Come to Praise Bill Maher, Not to Bury Him

As recently as a few hours ago, my buddy Jimmy Arone joined many on this site in giving Bill Maher a well-deserved thrashing. But I’m feeling a responsibility to give credit where credit is due. Maher may be a leftist ideologue, but when he’s not getting what he wants, at least he lashes out equally. No sacred cow is President Obama:

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My favorite part of that video is the quick shot of Chris Matthews. Even as he plays trained seal, his eyes betray a man dying slowly inside as Maher savages the thrill up his leg.

Now, we can nitpick and say that at times Maher’s been harder on Bush, but there’s no ignoring the fact that Obama’s taking some withering fire there. This probably won’t satisfy those upset at the glaring double standard we’re seeing from television “comedians,” but I find it unrealistic to want Maher or any leftist comedian go after Obama in the same way they went after Bush. They like Obama, they hate Bush. What do you expect? Had someone lost their mind and handed me a Late Night show, I’d be just as biased. For instance, there’s no way I’d ridicule Sarah Palin or Carrie Prejean. I admire them too much. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), however…

Because my beliefs and values are more in line with people on the right, there’s nothing all that funny about them. I relate to them — even to what everyone else finds funny. Sure, President Bush strangles a word now and again, but have you heard me on the radio? When I see Sarah Palin, I see my wife; in Dick Cheney I see the Dark Knight, not Darth Vader; and if you know Bill O’Reilly, you’ve met my dad.

Would this make me guilty of a double standard? Sure. And right now our present reality is that Jon Stewart, David Letterman and the cast of SNL feel about President Obama the way I do about Palin and Prejean … which is why God invented “Red Eye.”

What does gall me with these leftist comedians, however, is hypocrisy. To savage Bush over not doing enough about Global Warming while giving Obama a free pass is pure cowardice.

So at least for a few minutes over the weekend, Maher was no hypocrite and no coward.