Well, last night’s Real Time was a bonanza of stupidity. The only shining light was Tucker Carlson, who surprisingly came out swinging for the Republicans. The guests were Joy Behar, Paul Krugman, and Tucker Carlson. But one of Bill’s special interviews was with former Mexican President, Vicente Fox. Bill prodded Fox, and often gave leading pre-answers to questions he posed to Fox. My good friend Noel Sheppard at Newsbusters, did a great job at transcribing the highlights of this shameful interview. Here’s a bit of Noel’s piece:

For those with a strong stomach, Maher began the interview with the following shameful question:

Maher: One party ruled Mexico for 71 years. And, for, I remember reading about this, for decades people were saying, “We want someone to come along and break that monopoly on power.” And you were finally the man who came along and did that. And that power, that party that was in power for all those years was very corrupt, and very inept. It was like having Bush Republicans in there for 71 years. Now is that, would that be a correct thumbnail telling of Mexican history, sir?

Amazing. Imagine how much hatred Maher must have for his own country’s president to ask such a question of a former world leader on national television.

Sadly, that was just the beginning of the Bush bashing, for later, Maher asked his guest the following:

Maher: I know you have very mixed feelings about President Bush. I know you are friendly with him because he came and visited you during his early days in office. That was a very gratifying thing for you. But that doesn’t really stack up against some of his giant boners like the Iraq war, does it? And, you’ve called him a “windshield cowboy.” What is that?

Incredible. So, now Maher was setting up Fox to himself make fun of our president. Sadly, Vicente did not take the highroad that a classier former head of state would:

FOX: Yes, you know, in that visit, I took him to see this beautiful stallion that I ride. And having rided all my life since I was too young, I noticed that he was a little bit trembling, a little bit afraid of touching the horse. I invited him to ride it, and he said, “No, no, no, security would not allow me to ride that horse.”

And then I paid a visit back here in Texas, and he invited me to go around his farm there, by the way, a very modest home he’s got there. And, he was driving this pickup, this beautiful pickup, and so I could notice that he knows how to drive a pickup, but he doesn’t know how to ride a horse.

Isn’t that special? Alas, there was more bashing in the following exchange:

Maher: I remember a couple of years ago at one of the correspondents’ dinners in Washington, his wife, Laura Bush, got up and told a story…

Fox: Great lady.

Maher: What?

Fox: Great lady.

Maher: Great lady? Well, sure, look who she’s standing next to.

What a swell guy, this Maher, eh? You can watch the interview here.