Bill Maher's Real Time show is back on HBO. The first episode of its new season aired Friday evening and you have several more chances to catch it this week. I'm not sure if you want to. It's very funny in places, and some very interesting things were said. But I felt a little uncomfortable watching Maher and two of his guests (Michael Moore and former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell) largely eviscerate Rep. David Dreier. I used to think Dreier, a California Republican, was a pretty smart guy but you have to question the wisdom of someone who even steps into an arena where he's so hopelessly outnumbered, and not just by the other panelists but by the studio audience…which like all studio audiences, sides with the host. Some might call it courage to go in and defend your side against all enemies, but it came off more like either cluelessness or, as I felt with some Conservatives on Maher's program last season, a belief that getting on TV and being humiliated is better than not being on TV at all. There are folks on all sides of the political spectrum — including most Democrats who venture onto the Fox News Channel — who'd do well to consider whether a bad representation of their viewpoint isn't worse than no representation at all. Even if you're in the right, when the other side has Home Court Advantage, you can lose big time.
So if you want to see a Bush-defender get walloped, tune in. If you cringe at lopsided fights, you might want to give it a pass.
This is not to suggest, by the way, that many of Dreier's bruises were not self-inflicted. He started attacking Moore's film for being full of lies, then had to admit he hadn't seen it. In the immortal words of Rocket J. Squirrel, "That trick never works." I'm not the brightest guy in the world but I think that if I were going on national TV to attack the maker of a movie for its content, I'd swing by the Cineplex and at least watch the movie before the confrontation. One can dislike Moore and his work in general without a screening, but you sure can't be credible arguing the specifics of a movie you have to admit you haven't seen. Later, with everyone else ganging up on him, Dreier was called upon to defend Bush's non-action on the morning of 9/11 and the defense was so lame, I couldn't believe the Congressman even believed what he was saying. (The case for Bush went roughly like this: Upon being told "our nation is under attack," he — though lacking any details of said attack — did the right thing by spending time in contemplation. I get the feeling the tape of that morning really worries Republicans who think Bush's strongest asset is that many view him as a courageous, in-control leader.)
The best part of Maher's first new show was a brief segment with "surprise guest" Ralph Nader. Like all "surprise guests" on talk shows, this one was no surprise…but it was funny to see Maher and Moore get down on their knees (literally) and beg Nader to get out of the race.
At the end, Maher did a nice "New Rules" segment and then he thanked his guests…who by then, did not include Representative David Dreier. He mysteriously disappeared from the set at some point. I suspect he was backstage, firing whichever advisers did not stop him from going on the show in the first place.