Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher

June 26 1998

Guests on this program were:

Scott Stapp
Leila Bate
Harry Shearer
Mark Hamill

Bill: All righty. Thank you, folks. The band is Creed, the platinum debut album is "My Own Prison." The lead singer is Scott Stapp, Scott! [ Applause ]

Nice to meet you. Thank you for coming. She's legislative director for Congressman David MacIntosh. Leila Bate. Leila! How are you, kitten? Nice to see you. You can see him in "The Truman Show" and "Godzilla" and hear him in "The Simpsons" and the upcoming "Small Soldiers," Mr. Harry Shearer.

[ Applause ]

Harry.

Harry: Hi, Bill.

Bill: How are you, buddy. And you can hear him in "Batman," "The Simpsons" and "Woody Woodpecker." His graphic novel is "The Black Pearl." He is also Luke Skywalker. Mark Hamill.

[ Applause ]

Mark: Hi, Bill.

Bill: How are you?

Mark: Good. Good to see you.

[ Applause ]

Bill: All right. Well, guess you watched our little sketch and I know I am going get nailed from people saying, "Oh, why are you bashing the Republicans?" I am not bashing the Republicans. I am disappointed in the Republicans. I was one of those schmucks who went out and voted for the contract of America in 1994 and believed that revolution about how we're going to make government smaller and all that. Well, then they vote for this huge highway bill, $203 billion of pork. I could go through case by case.

Leila: You don't have to.

Mark: The only thing that passed in the contract for America was the line-item veto which was removed today.

Leila: That's not true, actually.

Harry: Were you this much of a supporter of the Republican revolution that you watch Susan Molinari Saturday morning on CBS?

Bill: No, Harry, I haven't seen a Saturday morning since 1970.

[ Laughter ]

Why, what did she say?

Harry: No, no, she had this show on CBS Saturday morning and they just fired her.

Leila: Yeah, they just fired her.

Bill: Oh, they just fired her.

Harry: They just fired her. This just in.

Bill: How awful.

Leila: That's not true that --

[ Laughter ]

Harry: People like you not watching. That's my point.

Leila: That wasn't the only thing in the contract of America that passed. Tax cuts, balanced budget.

Bill: Right. They're supposed for small government and balanced budget. What happened? You know, the Democrats I understand --

Leila: Well, the Democrats still run the place, quite frankly, because we --

Bill: Don't blame it on them.

Leila: No, it's true.

Bill: The Republicans run Congress. They are in the majority.

Leila: We have a very slim majority, and I'll tell you what, my boss David Macintosh came in in 1994 and he is extremely frustrated with the place.

Bill: He voted for the highway bill. Hello.

Leila: Hello. I know. So did everyone else.

Bill: "So did everyone else." That's a good reason? I thought they were revolutionary. That's the revolution, "So did everyone else."

Leila: You've done your homework, very good.

Bill: If everybody else jumps off a bridge that we don't need --

Leila: Bill, here's the point. Here's the point. We need to cut taxes. And that's the problem is that the Democrats and the moderate Republicans are preventing conservative Republicans like us to pass tax cuts.

Harry: So you're saying the Democrats forced Trent Lott to insist on a submarine or helicopter carrier that even the Pentagon said they don't need because a shipyard in Mississippi builds it.

Leila: It's pure pork. And the only way it will -- I think the best way to get at pork is to starve the beast. Cut taxes so you don't have the revenue rolling into Congress.

Harry: Make more bacon is the best way to get at pork.

Leila: But think about this. In 1980 when Ronald Reagan cut taxes, which started this booming economy that we're still enjoying --

Mark: I don't want to think about that.

[ Laughter ]

Leila: Well, you're not enjoying this booming economy? But, anyway, here's the point. Ronald Reagan cut taxes by $1.6 trillion over five years.

Bill: Yeah.

Leila: Tip O'Neil, liberal Congressman from Massachusetts, the most liberal state in the union, wanted to cut taxes more reasonably. He thought tax cuts of $1.6 billion was too much, so he proposed a tax cut of $1.3 billion. $1.3 billion.

Bill: Good, well, good.

Leila: But here's my point. Is that --

Bill: You've made your point. The point is that -- the Democrats have always been labeled as tax and spenders and --

Leila: They are.

Bill: Us -- but the Republicans --

Leila: Was that a Freudian slip, Bill?

Bill: Shush. But the Republicans are supposed to be the ones who fight that. And they have abdicated their role. That's why I'm mad at them.

Harry: The roles between the parties are just shifting all the time. I think we are all on this panel with one exception old enough to remember that when Jimmy Carter was president, when Jimmy Carter was president the Republicans made fun of him for being such a babe in the woods that he would dare to have human rights as an element of his foreign policy. Now they are criticizing Bill Clinton for being -- does this sound Republican to anybody? -- too pro-business. So, you know, these roles shift back and forth, somebody's got to play the role of Hamlet, somebody's got to play the role of Banquo's ghost, and casting changes every night.

Leila: You know, that's a good point, Harry, but I think still the class of '94 that came in, they're not in positions of leadership yet.

Harry: Well, with term limits they never will be.

Leila: Well, a lot of them --

Bill: Yeah, right.

Leila: But I think that's --

Harry: Weren't Republicans supposed to be in favor of term limits until they realized it applied to them?

Leila: A lot of them didn't vote for that.

Bill: I have to take a commercial, I apologize for cutting you off. We'll come back.

Bill: All right. Well, I was reading in the paper today about this water's edge rule. I had not heard about this, but I certainly agree with it. What it is, it says if President is out of the country, which the President is right now. He's in China. There's a tradition that people in the Senate and the House do not criticize him while he's out of the country. He ceases to be a Republican or Democrat, he is just our president when --

Mark: He's the only president, though, that has a series running on TV. "Well, that's all the time we have for investigating the president. Stay tune for White House in crisis."

[ Laughter ]

I mean, it's a long-running show. It never ends.

Bill: Is that his fault?

Leila: Yes, in fact it is his fault.

Mark: Well, no. I would like to say though there are a lot of issues that are important to John Q. Public not people that work in politics that we all support -- getting welfare cheats off and things that we can all agree on. When it becomes such a bloodbath, you know. At least if you watch Jerry Springer somebody might flash their [ bleep ]. It's like -- screaming, talking heads where no one is trying to find a happy medium.

Scott: I keep waiting for someone to do that in the audience so I can join in.

[ Laughter ]

Harry: And I wish Scott would stop dominating the conversation.

Scott: That's something I can talk about.

Bill: Well, let me finish the question.

[ Laughter ]

It was an interesting diatribe. I appreciate it and you have much wisdom. Dick Armey, the House majority leader, has --

Harry: You should be ashamed of yourself just for saying his name. But go ahead.

Mark: Now say Barney Frank.

Harry: What the country needs is a good Dick Armey.

Leila: Let --

Bill: That's the man's name.

Harry: I know it is.

Mark: Can you pronounce Barney Frank's name?

Bill: Barney Frank.

Mark: Okay.

Bill: Dick Armey is the one who pronounced it wrong -- Barney fag, okay. Anyway, Dick Armey critics -- he has broken this long tradition that you do not criticize the president when he is out of the country.

Leila: I don't recall that tradition being in effect when Republicans were president.

Bill: They didn't criticize Reagan when he went Bitburg, which certainly was controversial. They didn't criticize --

Leila: Oh, they didn't?

Bill: Nixon -- not when he was out of the country. That's the point. When he was out of the country he became our president --

Leila: It was a cease-fire.

Scott: When are you supposed to talk bad about people? When they're sitting right in front of you? Or are you supposed to wait till they leave the room?

Bill: The point is that when he's out of the country dealing with another nation, that we suspend our partisan politics. Well, that apparently went out the window today and I'm asking if that is wrong.

Mark: You know Dick Armey I think takes the position that this president still has a 63% approval rating no matter what they have shot at him, so maybe we need to have a suspension of the normal rules to get a good clear aim at him, because nothing has worked so far.

Bill: Right.

Mark: With a name like that --

Leila: Slick Willie.

Bill: Oh, that's so easy.

Harry: That's so old.

Leila: Well, it's so true.

Mark: Well, I mean, you talk about politicians that aren't -- politicians -- I mean --

Leila: Isn't it? I mean, is anyone going to argue with me?

Bill: Yes it is, Cher.

[ Applause ]

Leila: Cher?

Mark: I mean again proving my point that it's just mudslinging.

Bill: Cher in "Clueless," not Cher with Sonny.

Mark: Is not trying to find something we can all agree upon.

[ Laughter ]

Mark: Am I missing something? Or do I just have to talk louder?

Leila: They're making fun of me, but I don't care.

[ Applause ]

Harry: There's politics in the mall, too.

[ Applause ]

Mark: I guess what I mean --

Bill: Boy, is there.

Mark: It's irritating when you figure these guys work for us and when they act like pumpkinheads and make you insane watching them on television like this. That's a great way. Everybody's got their li (cuts off here)