Spiel Time With Bill Maher

Isaac Chotiner at TNR's The Plank gets it exactly right:

The most telling/pathetic moment on a recent episode occurred when Ayaan Hirsi Ali blasted the Bush administration for attacking Afghanistan rather than Saudi Arabia after 9/11 (she apparently misspoke: Hirsi Ali was clearly in favor of military action in Afghanistan, too). Sure enough, the audience burst into applause. Why? I'd like to believe it's because the House of Saud runs an autocratic state and funds terrorism. I think it's a bit more likely, however, that the real reason has to do with America's closness to Saudi Arabia and the Bush family's closeness to the Saudi royals.

Still, you can be sure if Bush had attacked Saudi Arabia after 9/11, the same audience would be clapping for whatever guest was speaking out against the war.

Can't these shows function without a gallery of tiresome fans?

The fans are not just tiresome, they're irretrievably stupid. You could satellite-feed a message from Osama calling the president less than bright and still expect at least a few giggles and claps.

Anything said by Maher with a big-insight-coming-up deepening of timbre is met with yelps and cheers. (I once heard applause after Maher came right out and said Iraq was better off under Saddam Hussein. Even if you agree with this sentiment, and I don't, doesn't it call for solemn appraisal rather than trotter-flapping approbation?)

From that kitsch, CentCom soundstage (how's that for declaring antiwar bona fides?) to the groaning and predictable "New Rules," Maher has made a minor art out of getting people to believe that banality is radical and that he's a martyr for mouthing the opinions of every editorialist in the country. What's really going on here?

Recall that he lost "Politically Incorrect" after 9/11 for saying that Mohammed Atta and company were brave, not cowardly, for killing themselves along with thousands of American civilians. Cowardice, said Maher, is firing rockets from a battleship into some foreign ministry or third world citadel. Even Rush Limbaugh — normally the point-man on tactical combat and just war theory — found merit in this contrast.

Ari Fleischer was then asked about Maher's chatter and Fleischer's terrifyingly Orwellian reply (to a different question, by the way) was along the lines of, "We all should watch what we say." This was interpreted by our hero of late night as a genuine threat and the cause for his subsequent unemployment. That ABC, owned by Disney, lost advertising revenue because of Maher of course had nothing to do with the network's decision to lose him, too.

Check out some of his talk not just immediately following this incident, but long after it, and decide for yourself whether Maher's opposition to the administration is rooted entirely in principle and not in vendetta. Then ask yourself if the unfunny comic with a TimesSelect account has spent the last few years battling a bygone White House flack as a distraction from the real hunt for Mickey Mouse.