Maher: Bush Administration 'Stupid and Arrogant In a Way Only the Religious Can Be'

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If Don Imus' racially bigoted remark merited a two-week suspension by MSNBC, for how long will MSNBC and HBO ban Bill Maher after his bit of religious bigotry on today's "Imus in the Morning"?

Maher, ostensibly on to discuss Imus' imbroglio, engaged in this repartee with the host:

DON IMUS: I used to think that all of these things that the administration did were either because of the war criminal Vice-President and that psychopath who was over at the Pentagon, because of them, or because of stupidity. But I really believe, in my heart, that it's arrogance, and maliciousness and mean-spiritedness. Mike Lupica and I, the columnist, tried to find out, and we know everybody, well, not really, when was the last time Vice-President Cheney was at Walter Reed Hospital and they wouldn't tell us and we couldn't find out. We've narrowed it down to hadn't been in the last year. So it's that kind of cynicism and that kind of arrogance and that kind of meanness is what I think we're dealing with as opposed to, I was trying to cut them some slack saying they're just stupid but I think it's way beyond that.

BILL MAHER: Stupid and arrogant, in a way only the religious can be.

That drew a hearty, extended laugh from Imus.

View video here.

Later, Maher let it be known that he had just finished a movie dedicated to mocking people of religious faith.

MAHER: I've had this thing, as you know, about religion for a long time. I do think it's the root of so much evil and I just think that there's a lot of people in this country who are on to that, who believe that. . . People are catching on about the silly stories, about the space gods who come down. And it makes people fight, and it makes people think weird. And you don't have to go into George Bush thinking God made him president, how well all that worked out. So it's just something I had to do, I just felt a need to make a really funny, funny documentary about religion. So me and Larry Charles who did Borat went off for a couple of months and I think we've got a funny movie in the can. We'll see.

Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net