Bill Maher Says Republicans ‘Love Ronald Reagan in a Way That’s Just Gay’

Last week, the media got themselves into quite a lather over Ann Coulter making a joke about Democrat presidential candidate John Edwards. Do you think the same “delicate” press will be as close to offended by a major cable personality suggesting that Republicans "love Ronald Reagan in a way that’s just gay"?

On Friday’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher was discussing how various Republicans like to “dress up” in assorted costumes, and quickly moved into a diatribe about one of our nation's favorite presidents that would offend most Americans regardless of what side of the aisle they were on (video available here courtesy of our friend Ms Underestimated):

The Republican Party, besides Rudy Giuliani, Bush likes to dress up. He likes to be a cowboy, or Iceman from “Top Gun.” And they have something very gay, excuse me, going on with Ronald Reagan. I mean, they love Ronald Reagan in a way that’s just gay. I’m sorry. But, I think they want to put him on a stamp so that they can lick his backside.

Think this will make headlines tomorrow, or be discussed on the political talk shows on Sunday? Don’t hold your breath.

Yet, that wasn’t the only disgraceful comment by a Hollywoodan this segment, for comedienne Roseanne Barr also made a fool out of herself:

But I mean, Reagan was the beginning of the whole dream that they had, the right wing since you know, Roosevelt died, that they would take everything that working people have worked, you know, all this time for, and dismantle it. That’s why they liked Reagan because he’s a confederate…No, they worship him because he dismantled working rights for people. He helped make our country, like, only be about, uh, working poor, where you used to like actually be a working person like Dan and Roseanne Connor, and, like, have a house, and send your kids to college. Nobody of that, nobody who has those kind of jobs these days – of course, that don’t have those kinds of jobs here at all. They don’t even exist anymore. That whole class doesn’t even exist in this country anymore.

Amazing. Yet, the best was still to come, for when David Kuo suggested that Reagan wasn’t getting the credit he deserved for ending the Cold War, Maher pounced:

Hah. Come on…He played a part. That is so ridiculous. That infuriates me. To say this man came in in act five at the very end, and he won the Cold War. You know what? Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, everybody played a part in winning the Cold War.  

Absolutely amazing. Harry Truman left office in 1953, and JFK in 1963. The Cold War ended in 1989, and Maher thinks they played a part 36 and 26 years before respectively.

As people like to say on the Internet, what a maroon.

What follows is a partial transcript of this segment.

Bill Maher: The Republican Party, besides Rudy Giuliani, Bush likes to dress up. He likes to be a cowboy, or Iceman from “Top Gun.” And they have something very gay, excuse me, going on with Ronald Reagan. I mean, they love Ronald Reagan in a way that’s just gay. I’m sorry. But, I think they want to put him on a stamp so that they can lick his backside. Well, seriously, I mean – am I right?

David Kuo: They call him the “Big Gipper.”

Roseanne Barr: But I mean, Reagan was the beginning of the whole dream that they had, the right wing since you know, Roosevelt died, that they would take everything that working people have worked, you know, all this time for, and dismantle it. That’s why they liked Reagan because he’s a confederate.

Maher: He’s just like them.

Barr: No, they worship him because he dismantled working rights for people. He helped make our country, like, only be about, uh, working poor, where you used to like actually be a working person like Dan and Roseanne Connor, and, like, have a house, and send your kids to college. Nobody of that, nobody who has those kind of jobs these days – of course, that don’t have those kinds of jobs here at all. They don’t even exist anymore. That whole class doesn’t even exist in this country anymore.

Kuo: Ronald Reagan, you know, deserves a certain amount of defense. I mean, he did sort of win the Cold War.

Maher: Hah. Come on.

Kuo: He did, right?

Maher: He played a part. That is so ridiculous. That infuriates me. To say this man came in in act five at the very end, and he won the Cold War. You know what? Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, everybody played a part in winning the Cold War.