Real Timed Out

Pretty much all you need to know about what life will be like after election '04 was on display on the last Real Time of the season. The tenor of the show was rather different from the pre-election shows, as you might expect. The scary part was the anger and vicousness of the conservatives. A foul-mouthed Alan Simpson became Zell Miller, browbeating Maher, ignoring his questions and essentially threatening him. And Andrew Sullivan, whose relatively moderate blog I had been reading, was strident and nasty, falling over himself to show his Republican bona fides. The more liberal voices were generally subdued. By the end of the hour the air was completely out of the balloon. It would not surprise me if the show does not come back, or if they give it to Dennis Miller next time around.