Dennis Miller--what a pathetic hack

As I was watching Dennis Miller on "The Daily Show" two nights ago, I realized what a pathetic hack he has become, and I now know he is a winger for life. He said, "I know everyone thinks I'm a right wing nut now because I backed Bush on this war, but quite frankly, I'm libertarian on everything." (emphasis added). Oh really?

Dennis ain't quite like the libertarians I know.

An interview published on January 24, 2004, in the Daily Nonpareil (a newspaper in Council Bluffs, Iowa), contained the following exchange:

DN: Are you concerned about recent perceived challenges to civil liberties through the Patriot Act that some say may be using national defense as an excuse?

DM: All I know is when Woodward and Bernstein wanted to see what Howard Hunt's library records looked like it was viewed as a seminal moment in the history of journalism. When we want to find out if Ramsey al-Kaboom has taken out a bomb cookbook somewhere it's thought to be Orwellian. All I ask is that if John Ashcroft wants to spy on me that he be so good at it that I never know.

(emphasis added). As I have noted, I have friends who are libertarian (and some are "capital L" libertarians), and none of them have ever expressed any degree of desire to have the government spy on them. In fact, one of them recently wrote his own rant about repealing the Patriot Act. Also, the Libetarian Party has called for the repeal of the Patriot Act. So Dennis Miller is wrong when he says is libertarian on everything.

Dennis is a right wing nut.

• Right wing for sure
  

After insisting that he is not a right wing nut, Miller proceeded to say that

• Bush is an environmentalist because his ranch always looks nice.
• We need to increase oil drilling in Alaska ("because we're going to need gasoline for a while--how many of you are going home in a rickshaw tonight?").
• He doesn't trust any of the alternative fuels (especially hydrogen cars because he does not "want to be in a mall parking lot surrounded by 1000 mini Hindenburgs").
• Jesus drove an SUV ("because He had those 12 losers hanging on to him every day of his life").
  
• Global warming is a joke (because an increase of 1.8 degrees over the last century is "amazingly stable," he could go back to his hotel room and screw with the thermostat and not tell the difference in 1.8 degrees, and if it gets hotter he will just tell his kids they moved to Phoenix).
  

That tune is straight out of the Republican songbook. That establishes him as right wing, but not necessarily a nut.

• Heeeere's Nutty!
  

He has, however, said some things that are on the nutty side. Here's a sample...

On June 18, 2002, Miller made one of his many appearances on "The Tonight Show" and said,

I don’t even understand why we’ve taken nuclear weapons off the table. I mean we treat them like our mother’s good china. We never use them. I think you’ve got to pick a day where there’s no wind, in a desolate part of the Earth, just blow off a bomb just to let them know we’re sitting on a nice hold card, okay?

Nothing nutty about that, huh? Sounds like Dennis is on the Jack D. Ripper program for "purity of essence." Check your fluoride levels, Denny.

In the same appearance, Miller also said

Guantanamo Bay, are these people being treated fairly? Let’s be serious folks. Guantanamo Bay is about as far as our Western sensibilities will allow us to descend as far as putting a prison together. No, you know, it’s no joy ride, but, you know, that being said, if you put the Guantanamo Bay terrorist prison outside of Kabul it would be their Epcot.

I'm sure the Afghans were slappin' their knees about that one! But Miller was just getting started about the treatment of prisoners. On his CNBC show on June 8, 2004, he had this to say about Abu Ghraib:

I'm sorry, those pictures from the Abu Ghraib. At first, they, like infuriated me, I was sad. Then like, a couple days later, after they cut the guy's head off, they didn't seem like much. And now, I like to trade them with friends.

The above link also has video links. Then on June 22, 2004, Miller had more to say about Abu Ghraib. As reported by Media Matters,

after reporting that Mel Gibson is the number-one celebrity in Forbes magazine's "Celebrity 100" -- show host and executive producer Dennis Miller displayed the widely circulated image of a hooded Iraqi prisoner with wires attached to his outstretched arms and remarked, "Forbes' least powerful celebrity? You're looking at him." Miller then gestured to the photograph and added, "Screw this guy. ... [He's a] bad guy."

Check out the video links as well. Creepy--and nutty.

And here's one more item about beating people (again from Media Matters) that Miller said on June 28, 2004:

The same day NBC News correspondent George Lewis reported on NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw that FOX News Channel's FOX & Friends co-hosts E.D. Hill and Brian Kilmeade had laughed about the videotaped beating of an African American man by white police officers -- an act a top LAPD official described as "Rodney King-esque" -- CNBC's Dennis Miller aired the tape of the beating on the June 25 show, with producer and host Dennis Miller narrating the footage.

From the June 25 edition of CNBC's Dennis Miller:

MILLER: Officials in Los Angeles are vowing to bring to justice any police officers who broke the law during -- [as the officer strikes the suspect repeatedly] Yeah! Get him! -- ooh, sorry, who broke the law during the beating of a suspected car thief.

And just in case you think Miller was not serious, please note that later in the same show, he said the following:

Sometimes you freak out! ... That cop got pissed off at yet another guy putting the general public in harm’s way and hit him with a flashlight eleven times, and I’m telling you, that as many people in this crowd that are applauding that, there are some other people who don’t want to applaud because they don’t want to look politically incorrect, but people are starting to think, yeah, hit him a twelfth time, I’m so sick of it.

And there is so much more, but that is enough for now. Dennis Miller is a right wing nut.

And he is a huge hack.

Miller is a huge hack in several ways. On his "Daily Show" appearance, Miller simply regurgitated material he has been using for the last several years.

• Bush as environmentalist because his ranch always looks good: Used on his "Tonight Show" appearance of February 23, 2003.
• Drilling in Alaska: Used in "Tonight Show" Appearance of November 6, 2001.
• No trust in alternative fuels (especially hydrogen cars): Used on September 12, 2003, on "Hannity & Colmes."
• Global warming jokes: used on "Tonight Show" appearance of April 3, 2003 ("amazingly stable" and "hotel thermostat") and on September 12, 2003, on "Hannity & Colmes" ("amazingly stable" and "moved to Phoenix").
  
• Jesus drove an SUV (because of the "12 losers"): used in an appearance in San Francisco on November 3, 2003. In that appearance he also asked the rickshaw question.
  

And that is not all. He told Jon Stewart that he started a pro-Bush website--"www.W..." He used that same line in his February 23, 2003, "Tonight Show" gig. Miller also explained to Stewart that the difference between Bush and Kerry is that Kerry is a chess player and Bush is a checkers player, meaning that Kerry takes too long analyzing a situation while Bush acts quickly and decisively. Miller was using that bit as early as July of last year and kept using it all through the campaign. Here's a tip, Skippy: the election was over almost six months ago, and nobody really cares about Kerry anymore.

A person who uses the same material over and over again is not clever, insightful, and ultra hip. A person who does that is a hack.

Another way in which Miller is a hack is that he says one thing and then takes the opposite position in order to kiss the ass of his masters. On the "Daily Show" Miller made a big deal about how being gay is not a choice and that he supports gay marriage--in an effort to show that he is not a right wing nut. He has stated that position for a few years. However, out on the campaign trail, Miller was the warm-up act for Bush at a rally in Wisconsin, where he implied that Kerry and Edwards had some sort of homosexual relationship:

Those two cannot keep their hands off each other, can they? I think I have a new idea for a new campaign slogan -- use the bumper sticker "Hey, Get A Room."

If Miller is really for gay marriage and not against gays in general, why did he use homosexuality as a way to degrade Kerry and Edwards? Well, Bush was there and the Republican crowd wanted to hear something like that. In other words, in order to make sure he could still be the comedic darling of the GOP and also be George's little buddy, he said something in conflict with what he insists he believes. What a hack.

What makes Miller's hike into hackery remarkable can be seen in some of the things he said in one episode of his HBO show in January 2001:

• As much as I'm willing to give Bush a chance, I'm a little nervous about his intellectual capacity.
• Most presidential candidates try to pick a running mate who won't outshine them, but who would that be for Bush? Maybe Wilson the volleyball from the movie Cast Away.
• Let's put Bush's cabinet under the microscope, or, as he calls it, "the little-stuff-to-big-stuff thingy."
• National Security Advisor nominee Condoleezza Rice has often been described as W.'s "foreign policy tutor". Oh, yeah, I love the sound of that. It's nice to know we're signing our nuclear arsenal over to a man who needs after-school help. Don't you think the fact that he needs a tutor ought to be raising more eyebrows than Eminem teaching kindergarten on the planet Vulcan?
• I'll take my shots at Dubya, but I actually have high hopes for the next four years. I see George W. Bush working hard to keep the ambitions of big business and the military in check, and ensure that even the lowest job pays a dignified wage. I believe he'll erase the animus that has divided Washington, and bring both sides of the aisle together. I also happen to believe dogs can talk if you touch them in the right spot, and everyone watching me is happy with their body.

Contrast all of that with something he said in an interview in the October/November 2003 issue of The American Enterprise (published by The American Enterprise Institute):

TAE: Many of your show business colleagues have sharply criticized President Bush, but you like him. Why?

MILLER: He’s much smarter than his enemies think he is. I think he’s a genius. People whine about him getting into Yale—the way I see it, if your old man buys a building you should get into Yale! But I think he could have gotten into Yale on his own; he’s a very smart man.

Un-freaking-believable. As I have pointed out before, ol' George was rejected by the University of Texas Law School, so we all know that he could not get into what was inarguably at that time the most prestigious law school in his native state on his own. That's a real genius.

Miller said something else in that interview that struck me. He was asked about Bush's religion, and part of his answer included a statement that "This is an infinitely complex world." Gee, one might say that such complexity makes the world more of a chess game than a checkers game...

Basically, Miller has ended up kissing the asses of people who routinely engage in actions that he before would skewer. Here's a another tip for you, Dennis: to be included in Bush entourage, you either support the entire agenda or you are out. Why don't you go on a national campaign to get gay marriage legalized and see how long you keep your position as the GOP's resident hipster?

By doing such a 180-degree turn, Dennis Miller has not become just a hack.

He has become a soulless hack.