The Dennis Millerization of Bill Maher

In my very first substantive post on this blog, when the anger and shock of the November election was still an open wound, I talked about the hollowing out of Bill Maher's final show of the season:

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.

I have watched the last few shows, and my prediction was only slightly off. Bill Maher is still the host, only now he seems to be channeling Dennis Miller. The guest panels lean right, and Miller/Maher talks about Bush as a man of vision on both Iraq policy and Social Security. And the next show will feature -- I'm not making this up -- Bill O'Reilly.

At this rate, soon the only thing worth watching on HBO will be The Sopranos, and you'll be able to get the equivalent just by watching C-SPAN.