Bill & Bill (O'Reilly & Maher) Together Again!

posted by Damozel | O'Reilly:  [A]re anybody on the right, on the Republican side, appealing to you, Bill Maher?
Maher:  "They're appealing to me as a comedian---"
O'Reilly:  OK.  But you wouldn't vote for them unless hell froze over.
Maher:    ...I would like to see the cross-dresser and the Mormon run together. 

You can watch the whole thing here, at Crooks and Liars.  Here's Logan Murphy's take on the interview, which is very different from mine:

Knowing he was out-gunned in the brains department, BillO treads lightly through most of the interview, but manages to get his digs in along the way. This was classic Maher, intertwining brilliant comedy with serious and and honest facts — even BillO laughed at some of his jokes — the ones he understood…

I'd have to dispute that;  it's my impression that Bill O'Reilly never knows when he is being outgunned in the brains department.  I think Logan Murphy was mistaking O'Reilly's trademark pained grimace for a smile.   In fact, the best part of the interview was watching the two men's expressions on Fox's split screen as they traded gibes and as O'Reilly---knowing for sure he was outgunned in the gibe department---tried to keep Maher from skewering him with the funny.   The exchange quoted above occurred during the final moments.  Toward the end, O'Reilly was grimacing and blinking angrily so much that he looked as if---to quote Catch-22's  estimable Mr. Orr---he had flies in his eyes.  (Come to think of it, that's a pretty good explanation of Foxian discourse. "How can he see he's got flies in his eyes if he's got flies in his eyes?")  Maher was chuckling and shrugging and rolling his eyes till I was afraid they'd stick. Or maybe I was just projecting.

O'Reilly, interestingly---and also shamelessly, considering this---kept using the phrase "cut and run."  Should we cut and run?  "The surge isn't working," Maher said.   He concluded:  "We will never outlast insurgents in their own homeland." (News Hounds)

To be fair to O'Reilly---because we here at BN-Politics are all about being fair and balanced---he did catch Maher in one misstep:  when he asked Maher what we should do in Iraq, Maher said he liked "the Biden plan" (for partitioning Iraq).  O'Reilly pointed out that to implement such a plan would require continuing U.S. presence in Iraq "for three or four years."  Maher pretty much had to back off at this.  As News Hound Chrish comments, neither Maher nor O'Reilly seemed to recall that Bill Richardson has been calling for immediate troop withdrawals.  And Maher didn't point out that O'Reilly himself said two months ago that the 'deadline' for withdrawal should be August 20. 

The most remarkable and memorable and enigmatic line from the interview might have been the sentence with which O'Reilly quickly and dismissively dispensed with a rhetorical question by Maher concerning the right moment for the Bush Administration to be "accountable."  O'Reilly: "There's not going to be any accountability for this president, except in the historical realm - history will judge him."

Who in the what now?  Do what?  Does O'Reilly know something the rest of us don't?  Does he have a crystal ball or a ouija board? 

Asked by O'Reilly which candidate he supports, Maher refused to answer, though he did say that John Edwards would have the best chance in a general election, despite "dicey" Hillary's growing popularity.  Wait, what?  I tilt back and forth between the two of them, mainly because I am under the impression that Edwards' chances against Hillary aren't that high.  Could that be wrong?  O'Reilly said that the Edwards campaign is "disorganized" and that Edwards is "left-wing"---which Maher disputed and I wish he could have spoken more---and basically just shut any further discussion down. 

To read a complete recap of the segment, see News Hounds.  To watch the complete clip, I recommend the one available at Crooks and Liars (which is of much better quality).

LINKED, QUOTED, OR CITED

• Buck Naked Politics:  Cockney Robin, Iraqui Government Fails to Meet Bill O'Reilly's Deadline
• Crooks and Liars:  Logan Murphy, Bill Maher On The Factor: “I want to see the crossdresser and the Mormon run together”
• News Hounds:  Chrish, O'Reilly: There isn't going to be any accountability for Bush, except in historical realm
• Bill Richardson for President (press release 08.22):  Governor Bill Richardson Says President is "Spinning History" in Comparing a Withdrawal from Iraq To Vietnam
• Wikipedia:  Orr (Catch-22)