S16.E19: George Will, Billy Eichner, Margaret Hoover, Michael Weiss, and Karen Bass

[formerlyfreedom]

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Bill's interview guests are Washington Post columnist George Will and Billy Eichner, the host of the Emmy-nominated TruTV show 'Billy on the Street'. Bill's roundtable panel include Margaret Hoover, host of 'Firing Line' on PBS, Michael Weiss is a CNN contributor and author of the best selling book, 'ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror' and Karen Bass is the Democratic congresswoman representing California's 37th district, which includes Los Angeles and Culver City.

 

 

[burghgal]

LOL - Upon looking at last night's guests, someone mentioned to me that "George Will will find some way to blame Trump on the Democrats".  He sure did, going all the way back to progressive Woodrow Wilson expanding the power of the president.  What is sad is that I kinda agree with him that the power is a little too much right now (but not that its "all Democrats" fault).  

Seemed like a bit of a rushed show last night, guess Bill was late for his Vegas gig.

[Caseysgirl]

I normally appreciate George Will for his calm and logical explanations of things I hate to hear, he really depressed me when he laid out the unconstitutionality of the Mueller probe and that ruined my whole night.

[A Beaverhausen]

Unconstitutional in his opinion. 

[wknt3]

2 hours ago, burghgal said:

LOL - Upon looking at last night's guests, someone mentioned to me that "George Will will find some way to blame Trump on the Democrats".  He sure did, going all the way back to progressive Woodrow Wilson expanding the power of the president.  What is sad is that I kinda agree with him that the power is a little too much right now (but not that its "all Democrats" fault). 

Yeah. George Will and Bill Maher are the perfect storm for "Trump is the liberals fault. He's terrible and completely unqualified for the position and a disaster for the country and engaged in criminal acts, but there simply isn't anything we can do about it." At least with George Will I understand the motivation - he wants to be seen as the grown up in the room and keep getting booked as the sensible elder statesman who tells you that yes the wingnuts are crazy, but we should go along with them unless it's bad for business. And he's happy to get the judicial appointments and thinks that the gown ups can keep things under wraps for a few years. I knew Bill would go along, so I was more disappointed to see him cave on climate change, in the hope that he wouldn't scare him off from coming back.

 

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Seemed like a bit of a rushed show last night, guess Bill was late for his Vegas gig.

New Rules was pretty good, the rest did seem sloppy. The Billy Eichner interview was good, but in spite of Bill, rather than because of him. And yes he did seem more focused on Vegas than the show. This seems to be happening more and more often. Another week with no Overtime :-( It ties in to what I said here before about laziness and Bill's jealousy regarding awards (which was on display again this week with his "joke" about envying Will's Pulitzer. If you want to win awards you need to focus on delivering the best possible show regardless of what else is going on. Too often he seems to be on autopilot and the show doesn't seem to be his main focus.

[ganesh]

George Will is incorrect stating that judicial review was thought up in Philadelphia. The concept came out of the 1800 SCOTUS ruling Marbury v Madison, by chief justice Marshall. 

And then lost all credibility with the "unsettled" canard about climate change. You want to argue a carbon tax would lead to recession? OK, fine. You can't seriously say unsettled. 

I don't know what he's talking about with the appointments clause. Was Ken Starr confirmed by the senate? If not, I would think Clinton would have refused to testify. 

Edited June 16, 2018 by ganesh

[IvySpice]

Boy, George Will is a real dick. I'm not talking about any of his political opinions. Bill Maher greets Will with an earnest, heartfelt tongue bath: you're a Pulitzer prize winner, I've been reading your work forever, I've been trying for 25 years to get you on my show, you kept my liberalism honest. So George Will mutters, "That's an oxymoron." Goddamnit, man, can you be a little gracious when you're introduced as an admired elder statesman of political discourse? You have nothing but an insult for your host after that welcome? What a prick.

[ganesh]

Billy is great. I hope his efforts to glam the vote part off. 

The woman in the middle was cackling when Billy said he made out with George Will. Seriously though, while it sounds nice when she says she'll vote for the Democrat, I'm finding that hard to believe. They were talking about Roy Moore, and one of the reasons he lost was because Republicans stayed home. 

[arachne]

After all the news this week re Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen, it was a bit of a buzzkill to hear George Will talk about congressional appointment. I shudder to think all of Mueller & Co.'s work may be for naught. 

[ganesh]

I'm not sure this administration knows that, so let's not tell them. I don't know about how that applies on the state level vs federal either. 

[iMonrey]

I was initially a bit embarrassed that I wasn't really familiar with George Will, but if this is typical of the nonsense he spouts it's no wonder I've never paid attention to him. He's no better than any average Fox News talking head, resorting to what-aboutisms and blaming Democrats for everything. The left could produce a candidate just as lurid as Trump? Name one. Oh, he can't think of anyone. Not one name. Because Bill is right: a foul-mouthed, race bating pussy grabber isn't going to appeal to the liberal base the way Trump did to the right-wing base. And Will has to go all the way back to Woodrow Wilson to blame Democrats for Trump? Talk about a stretch. By the time he got around to arguing about climate change being "unsettled" I had chalked this guy up to being a garden variety crackpot. He's no statesman as far as I can tell. 

[sistermagpie]

8 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

He's no better than any average Fox News talking head, resorting to what-aboutisms and blaming Democrats for everything. The left could produce a candidate just as lurid as Trump? Name one. Oh, he can't think of anyone. Not one name. Because Bill is right: a foul-mouthed, race bating pussy grabber isn't going to appeal to the liberal base the way Trump did to the right-wing base

Yes, he seemed to be also trying to blame the whole primary system - the crackpots gets more attention. Yes, that system *could* produce terrible people for Democrats but that's very different than that being a real possibility now. He wanted to ignore that the right for years has appealed to the crackpots intentionally. Now he wants to pretend that all those decades of courting bigots didn't create a field where Trump could appear. Nope, in five months there could be some crazy hippie out there calling for all ministers to go before a firing squad and he'll win. Or someone saying that pre-existing conditions should not be used to deny insurance, which probably is the same thing to this guy.

The climate change stuff was so irritating. "I've been accused of being a climate change denier..." Yes, because you are one. We all know that deniers have moved from "the climate isn't changing" to "the climate is always changing--just like in the middle ages!" That's denial.

[bobbyjoe]

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I was initially a bit embarrassed that I wasn't really familiar with George Will, but if this is typical of the nonsense he spouts it's no wonder I've never paid attention to him. He's no better than any average Fox News talking head, resorting to what-aboutisms and blaming Democrats for everything.

You could pretty much summarize George Will's entire career as offering the same old garbage but in a slightly fancier wrapper. It figures Bill's impressed.

[ganesh]

10 minutes ago, sistermagpie said:

Now he wants to pretend that all those decades of courting bigots didn't create a field where Trump could appear.

For someone allegedly so well versed in history, he seems to forget that this is the southern strategy.

25 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I was initially a bit embarrassed that I wasn't really familiar with George Will, but if this is typical of the nonsense he spouts it's no wonder I've never paid attention to him.

I used to read his column in Newsweek or Time back in the day. He is sometimes in the group panel on the Sunday shows. I was surprised to hear him talk this way on the show. Going all the way back to Wilson seems a little much. Presidents always push the edge on the limits of executive authority, but this situation is much much different. If he doesn't realize that then maybe he needs a break. 

[Drumpf1737]

6 hours ago, Caseysgirl said:

I normally appreciate George Will for his calm and logical explanations of things I hate to hear, he really depressed me when he laid out the unconstitutionality of the Mueller probe and that ruined my whole night.

A disingenuous argument that Bill Clinton surely would have employed. The report getting out is all that matters now, especially if Michael Cohen and Manafort flip. 

Bill is a feckless interviewer. Has it always been this bad? I mean Jon Stewart, Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid would NEVER let George Will get away with that Woodrow Wilson claptrap. Bush II expanded the powers of the president to the dangerous levels they're at now. A ding against Obama was that he didn't shrink them just in case his successor was another Bush or worse.

I didn't get past the interview. I can't believe how smug Bill Maher is; he gets the opportunity to interview an architect of the Conservative movement and he sits there with that simpering smile on his face.  

[GHScorpiosRule]

I didn’t watch last night (long week:exhausted); BUT. Didn’t Will get fired from The Washington Post, where he was a columnist? Or rather, they discontinued his column because of something he said? I’ve never liked him. Too pompous, smug and condescending whenever I saw him on MSNBC(?) on Election Night during 2008-2012. 

So he was the top of the show interview, right? So I can just fast forward to the main show. Good.

Edited June 18, 2018 by GHScorpiosRule

[ganesh]

I just don't think Bill was expecting a Wilson reference. 

[27bored]

For Bill to say Peter Strzok’s text to Lisa Page was just him trying to make the sex hotter between them is, like, some high-level delusion I doubt even Trump could even reach. He may need to put down the joint permanently if he really believes that.

[ganesh]

Bill was making a hyperbolic joke within the context of people using those texts as proof that there's a deep state. Even the conservative woman sitting in the middle pointed out that the time stamp on the texts indicated that they were messing around and shouldn't be taken seriously. 

[27bored]

They were delusional too. The report was careful to say there was no evidence of partisan bias that affected investigatory decisions, or something to that effect. But that text mixed in with all the other texts where he and Page was discussing the election point to a clear bias, not just puffery from a guy trying to get laid. If it was nothing, it wouldn’t have initially been redacted in the original transcripts of their texts.

[ahpny]

Like Bill, I've been familiar with George Will forever. But unlike Bill, I've never been impressed by George Will, Pulitzer's notwithstanding. He always come off as smug and aloof, and all too convinced by his own arguments, so much that any opposing argument is not merely wrong, but unworthy of consideration, e.g., his "oxymoron" comment. William F. Buckley he never was, nor ever will be. Here, he also he seemed a bit off and dotering, almost suggesting he had some cognitive impairment. If he takes another 25 years to return, no big loss.

[meowmommy]

5 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Didn’t Will get fired from The Washington Post, where he was a columnist? Or rather, they discontinued his column because of something he said?

No, he got fired from Faux News.  He's still bloviating at WaPo.   His latest screed there is a diatribe against, of all things, the Equal Rights Amendment.   His primary claims to fame are a pompous, overwrought, smug, superior, unnecessarily polysyllabic, nerdy writing style, a self-satisfied speaking style that clearly reflects infatuation with his own pronouncements, and a puzzling devotion to baseball.

8 hours ago, Drumpf1737 said:

I didn't get past the interview. I can't believe how smug Bill Maher is; he gets the opportunity to interview an architect of the Conservative movement and he sits there with that simpering smile on his face.

He was completely star-struck and afraid that if he asked a tough question, George Will would take his ball and go home.

Edited June 17, 2018 by meowmommy

[ganesh]

I think Bill was good on challenging Will when he said the democratic party could also produce a Trump. 

[arachne]

25 minutes ago, meowmommy said:

and a puzzling devotion to baseball.

IIRC, a Doonesbury comic strip once referred to that as Will's "connection with the common man." 'Nuff said. 

[27bored]

4 hours ago, ganesh said:

I think Bill was good on challenging Will when he said the democratic party could also produce a Trump. 

I thought that was a pretty bad, almost petulant response by Bill. I think George didn’t slam him like he could’ve. George’s point that Democrats could wind up nominating someone like Trump is kind of proven by Bill Clinton, whose transgressions were mostly forgiven at the height of his popularity because Democrats liked his agenda. One could even argue that it wasn’t until the nadir if the Clintons’ political influence that the Democrat Party felt comfortable making treatment of women any significant part of their electoral strategy.

And if one were to be truly petty, Bill Maher should look no further than his enduring success. Within the last year or so, he’s called Milo Yiannopolous, a gay man, a fag to his face, and referred to himself as a House N-word and his largely Democrat fan base forgave him and he got to keep his job. So George Will was absolutely right.

[iMonrey]

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Nope, in five months there could be some crazy hippie out there calling for all ministers to go before a firing squad and he'll win. Or someone saying that pre-existing conditions should not be used to deny insurance, which probably is the same thing to this guy.

I honestly don't know who George Will thinks is a left-wing equivalent of Trump. Clearly, he himself could not produce a name. But I think you're right - in his mind, someone like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren is "lurid" because of their far-left policies. Not their personal behavior. And saying "honest liberal" is an oxymoron makes him part of the problem of divisiveness in this country.

[DXD526]

Will was insufferable. I was hoping he'd have something constructive to say, but not even close. For someone who's supposed to be a brainy, thoughtful conservative, he came across as just another 45 apologist. And that comment about how unhelpful it is to be "divisive" after Bill outlined the POTUS' many high crimes and misdemeanors? So it's wrong to even bring that stuff up? If this is all the best and brightest of conservatives has to offer, we are beyond screwed. 

[The Mighty Peanut]

I have a theory based on no evidence whatsoever that George Will only dropped his party affiliation so he could be seen as someone with credibility despite not doing the hard work of actually changing or resisting. He can still make his snarky comments and talk above people about the same things he's been talking about for the past 50 years. IMO the republican party is made up of three factions--birthers who love Trump, republicans who put up with Trump for selfish reasons, and republicans who absolutely hate Trump but ultimately fall in line. Will really has nothing to lose by pretending he's some sort of great equalizer.

Was anyone else bugged by when Bill was starting to start a new topic and the lady in the red dress kept yakking about how WE REALLY CAN AGREE AND BE NICE YOU SEE LIBERALS because the other woman on the panel was polite in answering one of her questions. 

[GoldenGirl90]

On 6/17/2018 at 11:09 AM, iMonrey said:

And saying "honest liberal" is an oxymoron makes him part of the problem of divisiveness in this country.

The minute he made that "joke" I knew I wouldn't enjoy his interview. Come to find out, I was right. I didn't gain anything insightful or thought-provoking after sitting through that interview. 

[sistermagpie]

9 minutes ago, Alexis2291 said:

The minute he made that "joke" I knew I wouldn't enjoy his interview. Come to find out, I was right. I didn't gain anything insightful or thought-provoking after sitting through that interview. 

The idea that he could make that kind of joke *now* really shows there's no point. 

[formerlyfreedom]

Please keep posts to discussion of the show; multiple posts that veered off the show have been reported and removed. This includes posts that quoted other posts. Going forward, further sanctions may be taken if your posts are off topic. Thank you.

[charmed1]

I’m from the DC area so I remember George Will from back during his days on Agronsky & Company where his special brand of assholism used to get the verbal smack down from the likes of the late, great Carl Rowan and other journalists. This was back when those political round table shows had actual newspaper reporters and not eight, 27-year-old “political commentators” crammed side by side at a cafeteria table. I remember my mom yelling at the tv every time he spoke.  The only difference between Will and someone like Pat Buchanan is that Will’s voice is barely audible, so he comes off as a kinder, gentler asshole. He’s also had that same 70s Ken Doll lego hair since longer than I’ve been alive. It’s just grayer now.

Edited June 19, 2018 by charmed1

[UYI]

On 6/16/2018 at 10:29 PM, meowmommy said:

No, he got fired from Faux News.  He's still bloviating at WaPo.   His latest screed there is a diatribe against, of all things, the Equal Rights Amendment.   His primary claims to fame are a pompous, overwrought, smug, superior, unnecessarily polysyllabic, nerdy writing style, a self-satisfied speaking style that clearly reflects infatuation with his own pronouncements, and a puzzling devotion to baseball.

 

 

On 6/16/2018 at 10:57 PM, arachne said:

IIRC, a Doonesbury comic strip once referred to that as Will's "connection with the common man." 'Nuff said. 

He is a diehard, lifelong Cubs fan (as am I), and even wrote a book about Wrigley Field in 2014, when the park celebrated its 100th anniversary. For those reasons alone, I'll never be able to COMPLETELY dislike him. ;)