Joe Scarborough appeared on Bill Maher's HBO show "Real Time" on Friday, September 9th, 2005. To be clear, Joe Scarborough was not a panelist on the show (those who sit at a table with Bill Maher and converse for the better part of the hour long broadcast). Joe was one of the two or three guests that also usually appear on each show via a remote video connection. Bill Maher usually has a brief one or two minute conversation with each guest.

I was happy to see Joe Scarborough appear on Bill Maher's show as the two have clear differences of opinion on many issues, but can usually have a respectful exchange of ideas and points of view. In this case the two seemed to have more common ground than usual. Bill Maher started off by saying that most of the blame for the botched Katrina relief efforts should be put on president Bush. Although Joe Scarborough was clearly not going to go to the level of criticism and blame of Bill Maher, the two found themselves in the rare position of agreeing (at least to a degree). But the eerie lack of confrontation and discord between the two men was not so much a shinning example of bi-partisan consensus and agreement as it was more the eerie calm before a storm.

Before the weekend was over whatever respect and cordiality existed between Maher and Scarborough seemed to vaporize when Joe Scarborough let off the fuming anger that was building up from his appearance on "Real Time". On Sunday the safety valve in Joe Scarborough's head blew open and he vented out into cyberspace his scathing indictment of Bill Maher, his show and its audience, blasting the show for being a bastion of left wing partisans seizing on the tragedy of hurricane Katrina to score political points against Bush. Calling the program a sickening horror show Joe Scarborough also likened the audience to trained apes. Joe went further in his criticism and accusations against the show and its fans with the following charge:
"These idiots in the audience were obviously comfortable using the brutal deaths of women, children, grandfathers, and babies to score some political points against a Republican President."
Now I'm sure Bill Maher would be the first to admit that his audience acts like a bunch of animals. The show's primary purpose is entertainment, hosted by a comedian, so I guess "trained" means they were on their best behavior. But the implication of the last charge quoted above is that anyone who is not republican and is critical of Bush's handling of the hurricane aftermath must be using the deaths of their follow Americans to score political points. Although certainly true for some partisan zealots, a blanket statement like that, directed towards the audience of a late night show, is just completely ridiculous. I fear that if Joe Scarborough makes another appearance on "Real Time" he may end up giving himself a massive aneurism.

The basic premise behind Joe's post, titled "Katrina and political partisans", is best summarized with the title itself and Joe's own concluding remarks:
"...even in the face of epic human suffering, their political loyalties remain more important than gaining an understanding of what went wrong and how we can stop it from happening again."
Blind political partisanship is one of my favorite topics, and I absolutely agree with Joe's concluding statement as it applies to partisan zealots, of which I think it's safe to say there were a few in that audience. But Joe Scarborough's main point gets lost in his palpable fury over the predictable and expected laughter and gearing that happens on a late night comedy show. Why couldn't Joe just make his point without resorting to name calling and assuming the absolute worst about the people in the audience, their intensions and motivations, of which he knows very little? Making gross generalizations and assumptions about the audience makes Joe come across like a raving mad man who is trying desperately to score his own cheap shots. Joe Scarborough should save his attacks for a legitimate target. There's a surplus of partisan hypocrisy in American politics and Joe Scarborough should spend his time and energy exposing the great harm that it does instead of attacking the audience of a late night program.