Yesterday, the far-right side of the blogosphere was delirious with joy over Dennis Miller’s two-minute diatribe on Fox News condemning Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. At last count, I found over 400 conservative blogs praising the attack, characterizing it as the most devastating take-down in political monologue history.
You can watch the clip for yourself, but I have to admit, if this is the most insightful, stinging criticism the right can come up with, Reid should be fairly pleased. Miller’s rant had four basic parts to it:
1. Reid is physically unattractive.
2. Reid’s voice is “whinny” and unpleasant to listen to.
3. Reid’s rhetoric on the war has been “bleak.”
4. Reid is irrelevant (specifically, he has “delude[d] himself into thinking that he matters”).
I realize that Miller considers himself something of a comedian, but his harangue was a joke. For the right to embrace this as some kind of inspirational oratory is rather sad.
After seeing so many far-right blogs linking to it, I expected something fairly strong. Instead, Miller spent about the first half of his angry monologue talking about Reid’s physical attributes. Apparently, the right now finds it amusing to mock political figures based on what they look like. It’s political discourse at it’s most junior high-school level. Perhaps, moving forward, we should judge political leaders based on how tall they are? How much they weigh? Whether Dennis Miller approves of their hair? Please. I know it’s Fox News, but a degree of maturity would be helpful.
But I was particularly struck by Miller’s argument that Reid doesn’t “matter.” (Miller liked the argument so much, he used it twice.) We’re talking about a comedian whose first syndicated talk show was cancelled after less than a year, his HBO talk show was cancelled, his CNBC talk show was cancelled, and he was fired from his Monday Night Football gig.
Now he’s offering two-minute tirades on a late-night Daily-Show knock-off, making fun of politicians’ appearance with a laugh-track to help remind the audience which parts are supposed to be funny.
And he’s questioning the relevance of the Senate Majority Leader? And the right thinks this is brilliant?
I used to enjoy Miller’s work quite a bit. I found his work on Saturday Night Live consistently clever and I watched nearly all of his HBO comedy specials, most of which I found hilarious.
But now he appears to be stuck on Fox News’s “Half-Hour News Hour,” doing bitter invectives about Harry Reid’s weight. It’s a real shame.
