This is from NewsBusters:
[Be advised that this item includes accurate quotations of vulgarities.] When Congresswoman Ileanna Ros-Lehtinen contended Friday night, on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, that servicemen she’s met in Iraq are “saying ‘we’re proud of our mission, we know what we’re doing over here. We don’t want you guys in Washington to lose it over there,’” actor/comedian Richard Belzer condescendingly fired back, claiming that to “ask them” is “bullshit” since, apparently unlike him, “they don’t read twenty newspapers a day.” Ros-Lehtinen cited the knowledge of her Marine officer stepson, but Belzer, who plays “Detective John Munch” on NBC’s Law & Order: SVU, retorted: “Doesn’t mean he’s a brilliant scholar about the war because he’s there.” A quite agitated Ros-Lehtinen sputtered: “Oh, you are though! You are though? Okay.” To which Belzer affirmed: “Well I have more time…” Host Bill Maher interjected that Belzer’s point was that a 19-year-old is in the army “because he probably couldn’t find other employment.” The Republican Congresswoman from Florida countered that her stepson is a college graduate, leading Belzer to snidely denigrate the military: “You think everyone over there is a college graduate? They’re 19 and 20-year-old kids who couldn’t get a job.”
Ros-Lehtinen mocked him: “Yeah, you know because you’ve been there.” Belzer rudely lashed back: “What, I don’t fucking read!? Don’t do that!” He went on to argue: “It’s this patronizing thing that people have about if you’re against the war everyone’s lumped together. You know, the soldiers are not scholars, they’re not war experts.” That was too much for host Bill Maher: “You’re going to lose even me…”
Video excerpt (2:12): Real (3.7 MB) or Windows Media (4.3 MB). Plus MP3 audio (500 KB)
