Which Gaffe is Worse: Ann Coulter`s or Bill Maher`s?
BECK: Jeff, by the way, is on our station in Dallas, KLAF. And Jeff, you have made several trips over to the Middle East. You`re in Iraq now. What are you seeing?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Baghdad is portrayed on the -- in media very differently than it is on the ground. I will tell you that on the ground, when you talk to citizens from Baghdad, what they tell you is our economy is growing, we`re getting back on our feet, we`re rebuilding our infrastructure. And by the way, we`ve got a significant security problem we have to solve. Baghdad residents, to a person that I have talked to, have said this is not going to be a failed state and it`s not nearly, nearly as miserable as western media is reporting.</s>BECK: All right. Let`s take a break from the show and play a little game. I`m going to show you two clips of people saying things that have gotten them into a lot of trouble lately. One statement -- remember I`m the conservative -- I find totally inappropriate. The other, I find defensible. I want you to take a look at these clips and guess which is which. It will be fun.</s>ANN COULTER, AUTHOR/COLUMNIST: I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards. But it turns out that you have to go into rehab if you use the word (expletive deleted). So...</s>BILL MAHER, TV HOST: I have zero doubt that if Dick Cheney was not in power, people wouldn`t be dying needlessly tomorrow. I`m just saying that if he did die, other people -- more people would live. That`s a fact.</s>BECK: Here to play along is David Horowitz. He`s the editor of FrontPageMag.com and author of "Indoctrination". David, which clip out of those two do you find unacceptable?</s>DAVID HOROWITZ, AUTHOR, "INDOCTRINATION": Well, I`m a big free expression person, so I find Bill Maher`s far more reprehensible, but I support the right of both of them.</s>BECK: How do you find that one -- for those of you playing the game at home, I find Bill Maher absolutely defensible. I can`t find the joke even in Ann Coulter. I mean, you`re doing, you know, comedy, I don`t even understand the joke.</s>HOROWITZ: Well, I think it was a fairly lame joke. But the idea was that...</s>BECK: What was she going for?</s>HOROWITZ: We live in a totalitarian culture which has been created by liberals so that if you use certain words, the ones that offend them, you have to go into rehab. You know, like she was referring to the Michael Richards incident. Who goes to a comedy club and doesn`t expect to be offended?</s>BECK: NO, I get that. But what did that have to do with...</s>HOROWITZ: Well, it was a lame joke. She was going to refer to -- I can`t use that "F" word?</s>BECK: No, no, no.</s>HOROWITZ: There we go. She was going to refer to John Edwards by the "F" word...</s>BECK: Why?</s>HOROWITZ: Because she thinks he`s a wuss. That`s the idea. She thinks that that word does not describe gay people but describes people who are sissies. And obviously, you know, it`s a stereotype of homosexuals.</s>BECK: Sure, I get it. And look, I`m with you on the fact that I`m a free speech guy and if you can`t -- if you`re doing comedy, you`re doing entertainment or if you`re having a serious discussion, we can`t -- we can`t ban language. We can, however, say you know, language -- this language shouldn`t be used. This language shouldn`t be used. But you`ve got to be able to, you know, not -- not put people in rehab whenever they use language...</s>HOROWITZ: Exactly. And of course, it`s a one-way street. If you`re black in our culture these days, you can say anything. You get away with absolutely anything. If you`re female and a leftist, you can get away with an awful lot.</s>BECK: OK. I have to tell you...</s>HOROWITZ: If you`re conservative, you don`t -- they nail you every time.</s>BECK: I get that. And here`s where I stand on Ann Coulter. Ann Coulter, a joke I don`t even understand. I mean, it was just so bad, me personally, offensive because it was tied to John Edwards. And beyond that, if you`re a conservative, you should be mad at Ann Coulter, because she took all of the spotlight and put it on herself just to sell some books and the message of the conference didn`t get out on who`s the next president, according to these people, for the conservatives. Nobody hears...</s>HOROWITZ: Right, the big message of the conference was, because it`s a very conservative conference, was that Rudolph Giuliani is going to win the nomination...</s>BECK: Well, everybody is talking about Ann Coulter and let`s go buy some more books.</s>HOROWITZ: Well, I agree, but you know, all...</s>BECK: She did that intentionally.</s>HOROWITZ: ... that audience probably had several thousand college students who are harassed daily in their classes.</s>BECK: I get it. I get it. Wait, wait. Let`s -- let`s make sure we`re consistent here as conservatives. This guy, Bill Maher, was not making a joke. He was making a political point. Now I disagree with everything Bill Maher said except like that ten- minute period when he actually said that George Bush was right on Iraq, but he wasn`t calling for the president -- the vice president`s death. He said the first time around, he was like look, if he wasn`t in office, less people would die. A point I disagree with. But if you are Bill Maher, that`s consistent with his point of view. What`s wrong with that?</s>HOROWITZ: You know, Glenn, if you remember he made a comment after 9/11 that the terrorists weren`t cowards, but people who bomb from 30,000 feet...</s>BECK: I get it. That was after 9/11.</s>HOROWITZ: I defended his right to say that, and I got tremendous flak, you know, from my fans for doing it. He paid me back by being particularly nasty to me on the show. But I would do it again.</s>BECK: David, here`s the thing. As conservatives, I think we need to be consistent. You know, as conservatives, let`s just be consistent. Freedom of speech is freedom of speech, and no matter which side says it, let`s not torch them because they`re presenting a political view that may be distasteful. David, thanks a lot. We got to run. Believe it or not, this week the most annoying sound bite category, the winner does not go to Ann Coulter or Bill Maher, because it was up against some pretty stiff competition. Watch this.</s>ANNOUNCER: And now, the fake accent of the week.</s>SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I come too far, from where I started from. Nobody told me that the road would be easy.</s>ANNOUNCER: And that was the fake accent of the week.