Tuckered out

I thought Tucker Carlson was supposed to be a smart guy, but he sure wasn't on Bill Maher's Real Time last night. He was obstreperous, constantly interrupting to take bizarrely contrarian viewpoints.

The strangest was during a discussion of Blackwater, when Carlson attacked Paul Krugman, who was also on the show, for criticizing the use of mercenaries when the New York Times Baghdad bureau is protected by private contractors. Krugman repeatedly attempted to make the simple point that there is a distinction between private companies hiring private security to protect their private interests and the federal government hiring mercenaries to pursue military goals. Carlson, an alleged conservative, either refused to see the distinction or never heard it because he was so busy interrupting everything Krugman said.

Weird.

The evening's highlight was Maher's take on Barack Obama's decision not to wear an American flag lapel pin. Maher said that Sean Hannity had to go see a doctor because his fake-outrage hard-on didn't go down within 72 hours.