Maher and Whitford: Thanks to Bush, Attacks on U.S. 'True' to Many and 'Justified'

Assessing the anti-U.S. rants at the UN from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, on Friday night's Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO, Maher and actor Bradley Whitford contended President Bush's policies have legitimized the criticism of an arrogant U.S. abusing its power. Maher proposed: “Even though these guys are bad in a lot of ways, it is also true that the substance of what they said -- that the U.S. is a bully, that we want to rule the world with threats and bombs, that we're imperialistic -- what I thought was, you know, this is a speech I've heard over the years many times by tin horn dictators at the UN against the U.S. It's just that now it strikes a lot of people as true.” Whitford, formerly part of the cast of The West Wing, and now a star on NBC's new Monday night drama, Studio 60: On the Sunset Strip, charged that “lie after lie after lie” from the administration has caused “an inappropriate over-reaction” to terrorism “so that these idiots, these crackpots seem to be justified” in their criticisms.

Whitford also rejected the notion Republicans are better for national security than Democrats, as he simultaneously railed against tax cuts: “To say that, you know, the Democrats are pussies and, you know, we'll do the hard work of protecting this country. Bullshit! The things they have to do, is they have to follow the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. For $10 billion they could check every ship that comes into this country. Instead their priority is to give this year $60 billion worth of tax cuts to millionaires like us. They're not serious about protecting the country.”

On the panel with Whitford: The left-wing Reza Aslan, author of No God But God, and a Middle East analyst for CBS News, and the conservative Sandy Rios of the Culture Campaign.

Whitford (his IMDb page) was last on with Maher back on May 5 and a NewsBusters item, with video, “'The West Wing's' Bradley Whitford: Bush Has 'Desecrated' the American Flag,” recounted what he spouted.

Brief transcripts of a few remarks made on the September 22 edition of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, produced live at 11pm EDT at CBS Television City in Los Angeles:

Bill Maher: “Even though these guys are bad in a lot of ways, it is also true that the substance of what they said -- that the U.S. is a bully, that we want to rule the world with threats and bombs, that we're imperialistic -- what I thought was, you know, this is a speech I've heard over the years many times by tin horn dictators at the UN against the U.S. It's just that now it strikes a lot of people as true.”

Bradley Whitford: “What is the purpose of terror? The purpose of terror is to provoke an inappropriate over-reaction. And this country, this President, this administration, lie after lie after lie has done that so that these idiots, these crackpots seem to be justified. We have legitimized -- Hezbollah's now part of the government, you know, Hamas is now part of the government.”

And a few minutes later, Whitford reacted to the sole conservative panelist, Sandy Rios:

“It's a bogus politicization -- I agree with what you said before -- to say that, you know, the Democrats are pussies and, you know, we'll do the hard work of protecting this country. Bullshit! The things they have to do, is they have to follow the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. For $10 billion they could check every ship that comes into this country. Instead their priority is to give this year $60 billion worth of tax cuts to millionaires like us. They're not serious about protecting the country.”