Posted on 01/14/2004 7:24:29 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Dennis Miller, the liberal-turned-conservative comedian and defender of President Bush and the war in Iraq, is less than two weeks away from being the host of a new talk show on CNBC. For him it can't come soon enough. "People say I've slid to the right," Mr. Miller said in his office at the NBC Studios in Burbank, speaking in his rat-a-tat-tat style. "Well, can you blame me? One of the biggest malfeasances of the left right now is the mislabeling of Hitler. Quit saying this guy is Hitler," he said, referring to Mr. Bush. "Hitler is Hitler. That's the quintessential evil in the history of the universe, and we're throwing it around on MoveOn.org to win a contest. That's grotesque to me." Mr. Miller, who was speaking about television advertisements submitted to a competition held by MoveOn.org Voter Fund, a liberal political group, was just getting started. "Did you see the Democratic debate the other night?" he asked. "To me Dennis Kucinich's politics are more scrambled than Rod Steiger's dream journal. And Clark? He's a wizard in many ways, but when I hear him speak, it's almost like he's slumming. There's a mensch discrepancy there. At least John Edwards, who to me is a reasonably shallow guy, at least he can dog-paddle around in that park and not look out of place." Mr. Miller's rapid-fire monologues and obscure, even weird cultural references — Rod Steiger's dream journal? — have made him one of television's most visible comedians over the last two decades. He was a regular on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" from 1985 to 1991; had an Emmy Award-winning weekly series on HBO, "Dennis Miller Live," in the 1990's; worked as a film and television actor; was a commentator for two seasons on ABC's "Monday Night Football"; and most recently was an essayist for Fox News. Mr. Miller's metamorphosis from iconoclastic liberal to free-wheeling conservative — which he partly attributes to the Sept. 11 attacks — has not only made this 50-year-old comedian an esteemed figure on the Fox network. It has also made California Republicans, who have triumphed with a movie star in the governor's mansion, look to Mr. Miller as a possible opponent to Senator Barbara Boxer, the liberal Democrat who is up for re-election this year. (Mr. Miller supported Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign for governor and performed last summer at California fund-raisers for President Bush.) Mr. Miller said he told the Republicans he had no interest in running against Ms. Boxer, largely because winning would mean moving to Washington from Santa Barbara, where he lives with his wife and two children. "They inquired about my availability to run against Barbara Boxer, but I'm not at the point where I would consider it," he said. His new hourlong show, "Dennis Miller," at 9 p.m. weeknights (with a repeat of one show on Sunday), will have its premiere on Jan. 26. It will include his usual venting on current issues, as well as interviews with political figures, journalists and others, and a nightly "right-left" debate among figures at different points on the political spectrum. Pamela Thomas-Graham, president and chief executive of CNBC, said Mr. Miller's "kinetic energy" appealed to the network, now mostly an outlet for financial news. By hiring him, she said, CNBC hoped to retain and expand its daytime audience with a politically savvy show. She added that the CNBC daytime viewers were probably "interested in relaxing at night" with material that reached beyond Wall Street. Ms. Thomas-Graham said Mr. Miller's political positions had played no role in the decision to hire him. "We are completely agnostic in that direction," she said. "We were looking for someone who has a point of view and is willing to defend that point of view." Mr. Miller is also not a traditional conservative. "I've always been a pragmatist," he said. "If two gay guys want to get married, it's none of my business. I could care less. More power to them. I'm happy when people fall in love. But if some idiot foreign terrorist wants to blow up their wedding to make a political statement, I would rather kill him before he can do it, or have my country kill him before he can do it, instead of having him do it and punishing him after the fact. If that makes me a right-wing fanatic, I will bask in that assignation." Mr. Miller said he remained socially liberal. "I think abortion's wrong, but it's none of my business to tell somebody what's wrong," he said. "So I'm pro-choice. I want to keep my nose out of other people's personal business. I guess I fall into conservative when it comes to protecting the United States in a world where a lot of people hate the United States."
Cyber, lookie here!
I liked that show too and was sorry to hear that Robert Bartley died.
For once you admit that the President does have good qualities in spite of all the opposition he is getting.
Also, it's the pro lifers that operate the crisis pregnancy centers for those young pregnant women.
Being pro life is just a matter of being able to say what's right and wrong and, not surrendering to intellectual fashion.
For once you admit that the President does have good qualities in spite of all the opposition he is getting.
Is he being honest to our constitution in saying he will sign a renewal of the assault weapons bill?
Freedom is not the absolute, untrammelled, unrestricted right to do whatever one wishes, but the ability to benefit from the social contract that protects us all, as well as the right to work to effectuate changes in that contract.
The thing that slavery and abortion have in common, is that our social contract has made distinctions in which living beings with the 46 human chromosomes are persons, and which are not. Our society usually errs when it draws those distinctions too narrowly, in my opinion. Yes, society does have the right to tell you that you cannot keep a slave or kill your kid, without having to pay heed to your cries of "Freedom!"
It's just a definition question of whether "your kid" is your personal property to dispose of as you see fit, like a cancerous tumor, or part of the family of humankind, which the social contract is for the benefit of. Our laws currently define that at nine months after conception, I seek to move the time frame back as much as possible.
Don't like freedom? Let your peers dictate your business..
Freedom is not the absolute, untrammelled, unrestricted right to do whatever one wishes,
No one's claiming that.
but the ability to benefit from the social contract that protects us all, as well as the right to work to effectuate changes in that contract. The thing that slavery and abortion have in common, is that our social contract has made distinctions in which living beings with the 46 human chromosomes are persons, and which are not. Our society usually errs when it draws those distinctions too narrowly, in my opinion.
In my opinion, they're balanced about right.. But feel free to lobby for change.
Yes, society does have the right to tell you that you cannot keep a slave or kill your kid, without having to pay heed to your cries of "Freedom!" It's just a definition question of whether "your kid" is your personal property to dispose of as you see fit, like a cancerous tumor, or part of the family of humankind, which the social contract is for the benefit of. Our laws currently define that at nine months after conception, I seek to move the time frame back as much as possible.
No, current USSC 'law' opinion says the states can regulate abortion as a crime starting at about three months, using due process...
If they don't do so it's a state political problem, not a constitutional one.
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