Bill Maher: Our Troops Have a ‘Dysfunctional, Abusive Relationship’ With Bush

HBO’s Bill Maher threw quite a Bush bash on the March 9 installment of “Real Time.”

Not only did he stock his panel exclusively with well-known critics of the Administration like Roseanne Barr, the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank, and former Special Assistant to the President David Kuo who attained notoriety by writing the book “Tempting Faith” after leaving the White House.

Maher also began the program after his opening monologue by interviewing a retired Army major general that had just written a scathing op-ed about America’s top officers published in the New York Times Tuesday. This made him the perfect guest to start such a hate-filled program (video available here courtesy of our friend Ms Underestimated).

In fact, it was quite clear why Major General Paul D. Eaton (Ret.) was present when Maher, after some brief niceties, began the interview: "I thank you for doing this show. I thank you for, for coming out and speaking, because I know when you’re a military man, probably the hardest thing to do is to speak out, uh, in a way that’s not positive about the people up above you in the chain of command."

Yes, but it sure is a great way to get yourself on programs like “Real Time.” As such, when Eaton said, “I’ve got real problems with this Administration,” and actually thanked God for “the arrival of a Democratic Congress” last November, Maher was set up perfectly to attack the object of his disaffection:

I feel like the troops have this dysfunctional, abusive relationship with George Bush. The more he mistreats them, the more they seem to like him. I mean, the only speeches he ever makes are in front of troops or toddlers – the only two groups that won’t boo him, and I’m not that sure about the toddlers. Uh, why do they still like George Bush?

Well, Bill, maybe it's because he's the commander-in-chief, and members of the military have respect for the office that folks like you just can't possibly understand.