O’Brien: "And why don't you explain this one?"
[Cartoon appears onscreen. One priest is looking at the other and says, "Does this make me look gay?"]
Luckovich: "Well, OK. The new pope wanted to -- wants to ban homosexual priests, so you are going to have to lose 80 percent of the priesthood if that happens. But -- so I've got a bishop here saying -- he's looking down at his vestments, and he's saying, ‘Does this make me look gay?"
O’Brien: [Laughs]: "It's -- well, you know, it is a fashion statement, isn't it? All right. And, of course-"
Luckovich: "Yes. You know, I was thinking -- Miles, I was thinking about maybe making Denny Hastert maybe like an archbishop and somehow, you know, making the comparison that way. I'll let you know if that -- if that works out."
O’Brien: "Oh, okay. That sounds like dangerous turf, but I would like to see that one for sure."
O’Brien may have called this subject "dangerous turf," but he was clearly enjoying himself. After all, it’s okay to make fun of Christianity. Would the CNN anchor have dared laugh at the infamous Muhammad cartoons? Probably not, as that would be both politically incorrect and physically dangerous.
Later on in the segment, which aired at 9:23AM EDT, CNN displayed another of the "hilarious" cartoons. This time, it related to Iraq and Saddam Hussein’s trial:
O'Brien: "You talk about this a lot. This is Saddam at his trial. What's the judge saying to him?"
[Cartoon appears onscreen of a judge looking down at a horrified Saddam Hussein ]
Luckovich: "Yes. The judge is saying, ‘For your crimes, you get Iraq back.’ You know, that's got to be the worst punishment."
O'Brien: "It's hard to imagine anything worse than this."
Luckovich: "He's begging for death."
It’s no secret that the situation in Iraq is difficult and often disheartening. But Saddam Hussein was a murderous dictator. Imagine the comparison for Hilter or Stalin and it doesn’t sound quite so funny. And again, O’Brien apparently found nothing wrong with smiling and appreciating the left-wing sentiments of the onscreen comic strips. Throughout the piece, he created a chummy, "round-of-drinks" atmosphere for the cartoonist.
Shortly thereafter, O’Brien displayed one of Luckovich’s attacks on Clinton. But even this couldn’t stand without some conservative slams:
O'Brien: "There you go. And then Bill Clinton in the news not too long ago-"
[Cartoon appears onscreen of Bill Clinton "unzipping" the door to his presidential library.]
Luckovich: "Well, you know -- well -- and, Miles, let me first state, you know, this is a Republican administration, so people will call me up and they will say, [Adopts a heavy, stereotypical southern accent] ‘How come you ain't never done no cartoons on Bill Clinton when he was president?’ That's how they actually talk."
O'Brien: "And that's how they talk?"
Luckovich: "Now -- yes. Yes. You know, I did so many cartoons on-"
O'Brien: "You say that with all due respect, of course."
Luckovich: "With all due respect, yes. I did so many cartoons on him during Monica. But, you know, I look back at that as a quaint period. You know, the president lied about sex rather than war. But anywho, here's the cartoon. This is when the Clinton Library opened. Someone is yelling, ‘The Clinton Library is opening!’ And as you see, Bill is unzipping the library."
So, to recap, 80 percent of priests are gay, Saddam Hussein’s preferable to the current situation in Iraq, and "Bush lied; People died." Is devoting over six minutes to a guest with such hard-left beliefs really the way for CNN to combat its liberal label?
