Maher Suggests Conservatives Leaked Obama Somali Elder Photo

On Monday, the Drudge Report released a picture of Barack Obama dressed as a Somali elder claiming it had been circulated by "stressed Clinton staffers."

Four days later, on HBO's "Real Time," host Bill Maher strongly implied that the picture had been leaked by conservatives.

Although Obama and his campaign representatives strongly lashed out at Hillary Clinton and her supporters for "shameful offensive fear-mongering," Maher, during his "New Rules" segment Friday, never once mentioned the picture's apparent connection to the former first lady:

And finally, New Rule, to honor the life of William F. Buckley, conservatives have to take the high-road against Barack Obama which includes stop pretending he might be an al Qaeda double-agent simply because his middle name is Hussein. Someone this week released this 2006 photograph of Barack Obama provocatively dressed as Aladdin. The point: to remind voters that Barack Hussein Obama is a weirdo, from someplace weird like Morocco or something. He’s not like us.

[…]

A fundamental trait of today’s right-wing is the willingness to lie, baldly, and repeatedly, and without shame. And it always captures the Democrats off guard. Just ask war criminal John Kerry or Munchausen Syndrome sufferer Al Gore. Are people like Sean Hannity really so dumb that they think Barack Obama is an African spy who’s plotting to be the Lion King? Well, in his case, yes, but…People like Karl Rove know that the more ridiculous the charge you make, the better. Because they’re not aimed at rational people. They’re aimed at that great teeming mass of Americans who wept with joy when they heard “American Gladiators” was coming back. They’re called “undecideds,” or “swing voters,” but I prefer the traditional term, “morons.”

There’s only one problem here, Bill: conservatives were never accused of circulating this picture.

In fact, even in far away Kenya, folks believe this was leaked by the Clinton campaign. Kenyan elders are considering imposing a fine on Clinton – in the form of livestock – for her offensive transgression.

Yet, such facts are unimportant to Maher, because they would intrude on his point.

HBO top brass should be so proud to have this man representing them.