"Real Time" Update

After some funny stand up (“I heard that Monica Lewinsky wants to be a psychology major in college…she wants to blow people’s minds”), Bill Maher interviewed Walter Maestri via a remote feed, the director of emergency management for Jefferson Parish, LA, and though Maestri admitted that a lot of people didn’t leave because they thought they could “ride out” Katrina, he was still pretty PO’ed at FEMA for the reasons we’ve already described.

Maher then spoke to Joe Scarborough via remote, a pretty well-know right-wing barking head, who said that “blame is equally shared because everyone dropped the ball.” I don’t believe that, and neither did Maher, but Scarborough, with his “aw shucks, Bill” country boy act said with this dopey look on his face that, “hey, Bill, I don’t know if you’re trying to pick a fight, but I already said that I thought Bush was partly to blame.” Scarborough was quick to echo one of the right-wing talking points coming out of this, that “Jeb Bush and Lawton Chiles, a Republican and a Democrat governor of Florida, didn’t have the problems like they did in Mississippi and Louisiana,” and Maher was quick to point out the electoral vote importance of getting this sort of thing right in Florida. I could get a bead on Scarborough pretty quickly, but I can see how he can manipulate people who don’t know what he’s all about.

The three panelists were Jim Glassman of the American Enterprise Institute (referred to him in an earlier post…the show was due for a right-wing nut job, and though he wasn’t as strident as bubblehead Kellyanne Conway from the first show, he filled the bill), Cynthia Tucker, op-ed writer (editor?) for the Atlanta Constitution, and George Carlin. Glassman immediately starts with the “everybody screwed up” line, which is true actually, though he’s trying to echo Scarborough and make it sound like blame should be apportioned evenly. Cynthia Tucker quickly pointed out that New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin asked for help repeatedly and didn’t get it. Carlin’s rhetoric, though I agreed with the substance of it (“people in New Orleans are chronically poor because of a badly tilted game”), was pretty incendiary towards Glassman, but the problem is that he engaged in generalities about how the poor in this country are systematically screwed over without providing data to back up his argument, and Glassman pretty much took him apart on that score.

Also, regarding the media coverage, I thought Bill Maher made an excellent point (Maher was pretty feisty, though he did take it easy on Glassman a couple of times, telling the audience, “hey, he has to tow their line, so cut him some slack”). He said that when Bush said there would be zero tolerance for looting, that was the signal to the media to make that the primary focus of their coverage (if that’s true, then the MSM is even more pathetic than I thought, but I can see Maher’s logic on that). Maher pointed out that the coverage of the looting should have been proportional to the other, more important elements of the story, which I agreed with 100 percent. And as if to inadvertently support Maher’s argument, Glassman immediately chimed in with something on “The mob angle” again, as well as “the complete breakdown of law and order,” and Cynthia Tucker, who I thought was the most well-spoke panelist, calmly and rationally refuting Glassman’s arguments, pointed out that there were so many rumors about what was going on down there that we can’t be completely certain of what happened.

More Glassman lines: “Nature unleashed a fury on New Orleans. Why can’t we just recognize that,” and “mistakes were made” (no shame at all). In response, Tucker pointed out that “the 82nd Airborne can get anywhere in the world in 18 hours. Why can’t it get to New Orleans in that amount of time for a food drop?” Glassman proceeded to throw a bunch of generalizations out there before Maher asked him, point blank, if we should repeal the tax cuts because of Katrina’s damage, and Glassman tap danced his way to a non-answer. Maher also pointed out that he thought Bush’s recovery team was like Harvey Keitel (“The Cleaner”) in “Pulp Fiction,” which I thought was clever (emphasis on appearances, that is).

Also, the group managed to discuss Barbara Bush’s quote about the homeless in the Astrodome, and that led Maher into a funny Hallmark card parody. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. appeared via remote to promote his book and also give a despairing look to the state of mankind in general. Vonnegut remarked that he thought people in this country were getting stupider, and Glassman took issue with that afterwards, pointing out how many college students are enrolled in this country, though Tucker and Carlin pointed out that those numbers are going down, and more sciences students are studying overseas. Glassman then said something to the effect of, “well, we cured cancer in this country,” and the panel immediately seized on that, pointing out what a foolish remark it was.

Also, on the subject of Bush nominating two judges now for the Supreme Court, even Carlin acknowledged that we can just about kiss Roe v. Wade goodbye, with Carlin adding sarcastically, “The court chose Bush, so Bush should be able to choose the court.”

In Maher’s closing remarks, he said that Bush “governs like Billy Joel drives,” and called Bush “a catastrophe that walks like a man.” Maher also made an extremely convincing case, I thought, for Bush to give up the presidency altogether (I’ll try to get a transcript of what he said, because I thought it was poetry).

Update 1: In a similar vein, E.J. Dionne does the best job to date, as far as I'm concerned, of sizing up Dubya's failed reign.

Update 2: Thanks for the "prop" to Pixel Monkey (right back atcha) and check out his 9/14 post to read Maher's closing remarks.