Late-Night Television

I was watching Bill Maher's show Real Time on HBO last night as I was lying in bed, and thought there were a few things worth mentioning. While I generally feel that Maher is not very acceptable of the few conservative guests he has on the show, I was shocked by what occurred last night. His first guess was former senator Allen Simpson of Wyoming, a Republican with liberal social views. Maher was very polite to start the interview, and continued the effort throughout. However, Simpson constantly tried to attack Maher for his cynical humor, and even accused Maher of gay-bashing at one point. I am not sure where this aggression came from, or perhaps he was trying to be the conservative version of Jon Stewart on Crossfire, but either way, I was left questioning his integrity. He incorrectly accused Maher of gay-bashing while leaders of his own party are trying to push an amendment against gay-marriage. It just wasn't what you would expect to see from a supposedly diplomatic politician, but the more interesting part of the show followed this tirade.
Maher followed this interview with his three-guest panel, among whom was Andrew Sullivan, the popular conservative blogger. Andrew Sullivan made several good points, namely bringing to light the conflagration of morals and faith in this election, instead pointing out that the two parties merely have different morals, and that the Republicans' are more faith-based, an aspect I would argue against in the political realm. If we continue to move towards faith-based politics, there will be no true separation of church and state, which is certainly a mistake in a "democratic" nation.