Fraters Libertas

Meet The New Dan

So Dave Letterman has now officially outed himself as a leftist buffoon.

I'm talking about Letterman's treatment of Bill O'Reilly last night on Late Night where Letterman exposed his true colors as a typical coastal leftist with a templated mind.

I'm not a huge O'Reilly fan, but he's at least fighting the good fight most of the time and exposing the less sophisticated news connisewer rats to what could roughly be called conservative ideology (albeit with a populist spin).

O'Reilly isn't exactly one of the top guys to us conservatives, but to coastal leftists he is the Enemy and Letterman saw his chance to make A Stand and be heralded at cocktail parties for years.

Here he plays the liberal-approved were-you-ever-in-Vietnam? card:

Letterman: "Have you lost family members in armed conflict?"

O'Reilly: "No, I have not."

Letterman: "Well, then you can hardly speak for her, can you?" [applause]

Here he refuses to answer a direct question from O'Reilly, showing his intellectual laziness and entertainer's arrogance:

O'Reilly: "This is important, this is important. Cindy Sheehan lost a son, a professional soldier in Iraq, correct? She has a right to grieve any way she wants, she has a right to say whatever she wants. When she says to the public that the insurgents and terrorists are 'freedom fighters', how do you think, David Letterman, that makes people who lost loved ones, by these people blowing the Hell out of them, how do you think they feel, what about their feelings, sir?"

Letterman: "What about, why are we there in the first place? [applause] The President himself, less than a month ago said we are there because of a mistake made in intelligence. Well, whose intelligence? It was just somebody just get off a bus and handed it to him?"

Here, Letterman channels Mitch Berg:

O'Reilly: "No way. [waits for applause to die down] No way you're going to get me, no way that a terrorist who blows up women and children."

Letterman: "Do you have children?"

O'Reilly: "Yes I do. I have a son the same age as yours. No way a terrorist who blows up women and children is going to be called a 'freedom fighter' on my program." [mild audience applause]

Here he tries to show that he's above all this silly debating stuff, but he feels that O'Reilly is wrong. He knows what he knows, even if he has never watched O'Reilly's show:

Letterman: "I'm not smart enough to debate you point to point on this, but I have the feeling, I have the feeling about 60 percent of what you say is crap. [audience laughter] But I don't know that for a fact. [more audience applause].

Paul Shafer: "60 percent."

Letterman: "60 percent. I'm just spit-balling here."

O'Reilly: "Listen, I respect your opinion. You should respect mine."

Letterman: "Well, ah, I, okay. But I think you're-"

O'Reilly: "Our analysis is based on the best evidence we can get."

Letterman: "Yeah, but I think there's something, this fair and balanced. I'm not sure that it's, I don't think that you represent an objective viewpoint." (ED NOTE: Earth to Dave--O'Reilly is a commentator, not a news anchor. Is this a tough distinction to make?)

O'Reilly: "Well, you're going to have to give me an example if you're going to make those claims."

Letterman: "Well I don't watch your show so that would be impossible."

O'Reilly: "Then why would you come to that conclusion if you don't watch the program?"

Letterman: "Because of things that I've read, things that I know."

O'Reilly: "Oh come on, you're going to take things that you've read. You know what that says about you? Come on. Watch it for a couple, look, watch it for a half hour. You'll get addicted. You'll be a Factor fan, we'll send you a hat."

Letterman: "You'll send me a hat. Well, send Cindy Sheehan a hat"

O'Reilly: "I'll be happy to."

What incredible hubris Letterman showed last night. What disdain for the values of half of the people in the country. Amazing that a popular entertainer would go so far out on a limb like this.

I know there are a sizeable portion of what I call the Thank-You-Sir-May-Have-Another-Conservatives who don't want to hold entertainers responsible for their BS rhetoric and will gladly suffer any slight, diss or direct kick in the nuts and just throw up their hands and say "Oh well, I don't like him because of his politics".

Well, I think that has to change. Letterman needs to become persona non grata to thinking conservatives. He needs to be the butt of jokes. He needs to be mocked, scorned and ridiculed. He needs to become the new Dan Rather.