Like most liberal media members, Bill Maher thinks violent political rhetoric only comes from Republicans.
Proving this once again, HBO's "Real Time" host on Friday disputed former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele's claim that Democrats used such hostile talk against Republicans during the recent budget battle (video follows with transcript and commentary):
BILL MAHER, HOST: Tell me what’s worse than that, because in a world full of lies, I feel this man [Sen. John Kyl (R-Ariz.)] stands alone. I mean, and for that statement to come from his press secretary, “His remark was not intended to be a factual statement,” it includes a percent. I mean, it's one thing if you’re, “This is my opinion,” but there was an actual number in there. 90 percent as opposed to three.
ED SCHULTZ: What he was trying to do there, he was trying to sell the American people to be against Planned Parenthood. Okay.
MICHAEL STEELE: Right.
SCHULTZ: So this is the United States senator, one of a 100, on the floor of the Senate, throwing out a falsehood and then admitting to the American people, “Well, you know, I really wasn't too high on the facts. Just throwing it out.”
STEELE: And you're shocked by that because?
SCHULTZ: Well, I’ll tell you, this is what it’s come to?
STEELE: But you've seen over the past couple of weeks in the whole lead-up to the vote this week, you know, hyperbolic statements on both sides from…
SCHULTZ: What compares to that?
MAHER: Really? What, thank you.
STEELE: From, from, you know, “Republicans want, you know, to kill old people and put them out of their homes."
MAHER: Who said that?
STEELE: A number of members of Congress.
MAHER: They said they wanted to kill old people?
STEELE: Yes. No, wait a minute.
MAHER: Wait a second. That's the exact phrase they used?
STEELE: Yes. You can go back. Go back, go back.
MAHER: I’m just asking.
STEELE: Go back. Go back. Yes. Hold on.
MAHER: They want to kill old people?
STEELE: Go back, go back to the congressman from Florida who made the exact same statement…
MAHER: Alan Grayson, get sick and die. But you…
SCHULTZ: You said this week, Michael. You said this week.
STEELE: I said leading up to this week.
SCHULTZ: Okay, okay.
STEELE: Listen to what I say.
Too bad Steele couldn't think of anything more recent like Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fl.) saying Congressman Paul Ryan's (R-Wisc.) budget was "a death trap for some seniors."
Or Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) saying that freshmen House Republicans came to Washington to kill women.
Or Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) saying shutting down the government is "the functional equivalent of bombing innocent civilians."
Or Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Mary.) saying, "This entire debate has involved throwing women and children under the bus."
Frankly, all four of these comments were far more inflammatory and offensive than what Kyl said concerning abortions and Planned Parenthood, but Maher either has never heard them or was lying.
Better yet, Maher himself said on NBC's "Tonight Show" shortly after the shootings in Tuscon, "The right-wing loves, the go-to rhetoric for them is, 'Wouldn't it be fun to kill the people we disagree with?'"
This came moments before he ironically said, "Left-wingers don't talk that way."
You really can't make this stuff up.
On the other hand, no matter how many examples you might present to Maher, he wouldn't hear them, for like most liberals, he's got a Democrat violent rhetoric filter that only allows hateful comments by conservatives to come through.
You think you have to buy such a device, or are they passed out for free by the DNC to all media members that want them?
