Arianna On John McCain: Hijacked By The Right

On Real Time with Bill Maher Friday night Arianna joined a panel of guests including Phil Donahue and Garry Shandling for a discussion of the presidential race. On the program, Arianna pointed out that John McCain, whose candidacy was defended by Shandling, is not the "maverick" John McCain of 2000 that people want to believe he is, but a "pawn of the right" who panders to that group's "lunatic fringe."

Watch the clip:

Watch Arianna discuss the true implications of Hillary Clinton's war vote.

Watch Arianna discuss the lack of press reaction to Hillary's comments about obliterating Iran.

Watch Arianna discuss the right wing's lunatic fringe on ABC's 20/20 with John Stossel.

Comments

[Blurp]

An Open Letter to Bill Maher:

What an abortion that last show of the season was. I loved the Larry Sanders Show, but keep Garry Shandling off any future panel. Phil Donahue looked positively embarrassed by Shandling's incoherent ramblings which were even more distracting due to the fact that his entire face seems to have been botoxed. In two words: I cringed.

[ohiomark]

We WISH John McCain would get "hijacked" by the right. He spends too much time tring to make liberals happy.

[Proud2BIndy]

"We" who? You and Osama Bin Laden.

The Right is as great an Enemy of the State as Al Qaeda's senior leadership and in fact want exactly the same thing:

* A bankrupt America
* Her population utterly paralyzed by incessant abject fear
* Her democratic system overturned and replaced by oligarchy
* All reason and acquired wisdom be replaced by unyielding Religious fundamentalism
* The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and most of all the Bill of Rights be declared null and void now and forever

To support the "Right" in America at this point is tantamount to treason. You sir, are a traitor to every single principle this nation was founded on. Iran is clearly more your cup of tea, so why don't you just move there and we'll ALL be happy..

[Binx101]

1. Gary Shandling needs too much attention to be sitting on a panel with Donahue and Huffington. What a waste of an opportunity. What a boob to waste that opportunity to think out loud other than high school gags.

2. High Jacked - Schmijacked. There's nothing to Hijack. McCain is a myth.

3. John "Loop Hole" McCain is the Republican stooge because none of the Gop candidates were willing to run and gamble on the Dems shooting each other at High Noon. Huckabee or McCain, except McCain came with better ballast so he won the coin toss in Repub delegate math. That's it. Other than that he's shallow, forgetful and a bit of documented crook. Keating 5, the other banking scandal.

We have written about him on a few occasions - tin foil hat and all.

Binx101
The Almost Daily Binx
http://binx101.wordpress.com

[Marlyn]

Phi Donahue says "the core of the Democratic Party has rushed to the Republicans ..."

What is he talking about? Is he saying the "Reagan Democrats", also known as "Republican Lite", are the core of the Democratic Party?
I don't get it Phi?

[dbroad]

I actually thought the show was pretty good. I thought Shandling was funny. He wouldnt shut up though. I remember watching Arianna on Politically Incorrect. She was a repub. then. She is a great example of what capitalism is all about. You gotta love it!

[Blutus]

What is "right wing" about McCain's plan of the border?

[Marlyn]

Thank you Arianna for fighting the good fight.

[bubbainca]

I watched the whole episode and McCain's candidacy was hardly "defended by Shandling". Shandling was just too dumb and incoherent to be defending anything. The guy just didn't know when to stop and I kept hoping the audience would stop encouraging him with the mercy laughs. He single-handedly wrecked the show to the point that I could not even enjoy the new rules segment.

[Alvin4NY]

I agree. I thought Arianna choked on this show as well, she had a couple of funny moments but her bias toward Obama made her look as bad as Russert and Mathews. Bill tossed a couple of zingers at her, starting with the comment that he made following Arianna's comments that Bill had dated more black women than Obama (which was followed with, "At least my husband wasn't gay...") The other was when he showed the back of the VW Bus with all of the Bumper Stickers, and Bill said it looked like the Huffington Post. I have to agree. How many misleading "bumper sticker" headlines does she put out, each and everyday? Huffington Post, New York Post, same difference.

[Lazycrockett]

Worse episode of the season.

[zull2]

Man, Shandling has no clue here. What does McCain have to do to convince him that he's all about the far right wing? The guy proudly accepted the endorsement of a minister who's bold plan to ship all homosexual people off to other countries, and declared that New Orleans was hit by Hurricane Katrina because there was going to be a gay pride parade the next week is right in the CORE of the extreme lunatic fringe of the right wing. Hagee didn't just get a few sermons plastered together, Hagee has repeated his statements more than once! Oh yeah, Hagee's also ridiculed the Catholic religion too. McCain also gets "spiritual advice" from a guy who's dream is to wipe the Muslim religion from the face of the Earth. That is also extremely insane advice from right wing lunatics. Does anyone think that would PREVENT John McCain from starting more illegal wars?

[Mij13]

I cannot understand why more is not being made about the Hagee endorsement. I saw a clip the other day where a reporter asked him about it on his plane, and he kept saying something like "rediculous" over and over as she tried to get her question out. I mean, can you imagine either of the Democrats doing something like that and getting away with it. We'd hear about it non- stop for a week, at least.

[Lazycrockett]

Cause the GOP embraces its hate.

[UnbiasView]

Honest question:

How has McCain been hijacked by the right if he is hanging out with Joe L. every day? That sounds like being hijacked by th left to me.

[Changeizgood]

should have said John McSame is hijacked by the right as Joe Sleazyman is.

The right bought "Benedict Sleazyman in 2004.
Sleazyman has new Oil buddies now in the Republiklan party.
Turncoat.

[dbroad]

I am with you. I am conservative and John McCain is NOT. He is not so different from Hillary. He may not lie as much as she does but I am not sure.

[WoodyCPM]

You're either joking or you've been living in a cave. Lieberman, member of the left? HA!

[alexcharner]

Joe Lieberman is not a part of the left. Back when he was a Democrat, he was a right-wing DLC Democrat. Extreme right wing on foreign policy and moderate on social and kitchen table issues. He has been in lockstep with the administration through every step of the war.

[MetalCanuck]

http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?p=north+american+union&ei=UTF-8&tnr=21&vid=2421078http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?p=north+american+union&ei=UTF-8&tnr=21&vid=2421078

Check this out guys, WAIT till the end. This is actually being talked about on CNN..Wow.

[MetalCanuck]

Its not working sorry.

[RnR]

Shandling ticked me off right away with his asking Arianna if she were legal. I think his "job" for the night was to hijack the show.

[Testtubebaby]

A lot the things weren't called for and that was one of them.

[LeftLeanWing]

LOOks like Larry got a bad batch of Botox.

Anymore facial paralysis he could be the ventriloquist dummy to himself

[Whycee54]

Good Lord, With a TV and political ICON such as Phil Donahue, this show wasted its time watching Bill fake laughs over the raw jacked up humor of that has been Gary Shandling. That man wasnt funny then and he isnt now. NO wonder Phil walked out before they aired on the internet. BILL HOW COULD YOU let time pass by and not let Phil get a word in edge wise....I only kept HBO for your show... TSK TSK TSK.. Arianna applaud you for even sitting there as long as you did. WHAT A WASTED OF TV TIME. AND I PAID FOR IT.

[Marlyn]

"WHAT A WASTED OF TV TIME. AND I PAID FOR IT."

I agree ... a waste of time and money. So cancel HBO. Stop giving them your money.

[Testtubebaby]

The "Whole" show sucked with the exception of Phil.

[awcbuddy8]

Phil Donahue is a pompous pansy...just ask Katherine Hepburn.

[IowaKid]

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/24/flashback-as-katrina-raged-mccain-celebrated-69th-birthday-with-bush/