Bill Maher defends his comments about U.S. 'Dear Leader' & his 'Shooter' sidekick

Bill Maher on HBO & Jon Stewart of Comedy Central are my favorite 'political comedians'. Both are bright, witty and have a highly developed sense of humor.

By contrast, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity are humorless & dull, simply repeating their prejudices ad nauseum. As Al Franken said about college drop-out Hannity, "He just repeats the only 11 facts he's ever learned over & over again." And of course Fox also has the hare-brained Ann Coulter & other assorted loonies.

The following are excerpts from an interview by O'Reilly of Bill Maher. How Maher can stand this asshole is beyond me...

O'REILLY: Now, I want to play a Leno clip, and I want to get your take on it. Roll it. He's talking about — Bill Maher is talking about President Bush.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAHER: It's not that complicated. The man is a rube. He is a dolt. He is a yokel on the world stage. He is a "Gilligan" who cannot find his (expletive deleted) with two hands.

He is a vain half wit who interrupts one incoherent sentence with another incoherent sentence...

O'REILLY: Competence is fine. You can do that. But I'll tell you what. I have spoken to you one-on-one. I've spoken to President Bush one on-one. He's not stupid. You're not stupid. By calling him stupid on the Leno program doesn't do you any good, Bill. And I'm looking out for you. You know me. I'm looking out for you, man.

MrKen says---Wrong O'Reilly! How would you know if Bush is dumb, as uninformed and dull as you are? And you look out for nobody but yourself, you fraud...looking out for the folks---yeah, right...

BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Personal Story" segment tonight, comedian/commentator Bill Maher has been doing what he does so well, getting the right wing angry. On his HBO program "Real Time" he said this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL MAHER, HOST, HBO'S "REAL TIME": I have zero doubt that if Dick Cheney was not in power people wouldn't be dying needlessly tomorrow. If he did die, other people — more people would live. That's a fact.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

For the full transcript of this interview, go here: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,257352,00.html