Boring Liberals: I don't remember who said it, but an explanation of why liberals aren't funny (and by extension, are boring) went like this: Liberals say you can't make fun of the disadvantaged. Conservatives realize that you can make fun of them, even if you shouldn't. Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Richard Pryor -- these were the liberals of yore, to whom a sacred cow was a BBQ waiting to happen. Today's libs are too concerned with not hurting feelings, not being insensitive, and not saying any word that is on the naughty list. Libs have been reduced to making fun of Republicans, rich people (but not Hollywood rich people), and provincialisms of the flyover states. Like him or not, Rush Limbaugh can be very funny. Imus (a middle-of-the-road Republican) can be very funny. Stern (a natural libertarian) can occasionally be funny, though he used to be funnier before he turned into a self-publicity machine. And the liberals? We gotta stray into TV-land to even find one of stature woth mentioning (although Ed Koch's old show on WABC was a riot, though not always intentionally). Donahue is just a sanctimonius blowhard. Begala and Carville ... god, why bother. If Bush said the sky is blue, one of the two would heap scorn on him for stating the obvious, and the other would point out that it's a cloudy day. Chris Matthews, while not funny per se, has a nicely developed sense of absurdity, and can pull off a great line, especially when Howard Fineman is his deadpan man.

On the other hand, Bill O'Reilly is every bit Donahue's equal in foolish pomposity, and I take great pleasure in disagreeing with his constructed anti-intellectualism and put-on "regular Joe" persona. And Pat Buchanan couldn't sell me on a glass of water in Death Valley. A great bipartisan matchup was Buckley and Kinsley on "Firing Line." Kinsley can be quite funny, though not when talking of anything serious, and Buckley is hilarious, if you can understand his mumbling. (Buckley spoke at my commencement; he was even less intelligible than the Hungarian visiting lecturer who gave the faculty speech.)