Famed "Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson once said he didn't want to reveal
his political views because he didn't want to alienate viewers. And he
famously took aim at both parties in his nightly monologue, realizing that
politics is simply funny.

Very few comedians these days do that. Think of all the late-night hosts,
Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Myers, Stephen Colbert. And some stand-up
comedians, like Patton Oswalt, are vicious to anyone who doesn't think
exactly like them.

But Bill Maher is different. Maher, whose comedy career was flagging when he
morphed into a political talk show host back in the mid-1990s, has become a
rare specimen -- a comedian who targets both sides.

The 66-year-old funnyman, who hosted "Politically Incorrect" from 1992 to
2002 and has headlined "Real Time" on HBO since 2003, has described himself
as a liberal and a libertarian.

But he also calls himself "practical." That means he can see the humor that
pours from turkeyneck Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) just as well as the
buffoonery of 147-year-old House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

So it was not unusual -- although it drew headlines across the country --
when Maher said President Joe Biden needs to get rid of Vice President Kamala
Harris if he decides to run again in 2024.

"It's very hard to take the nomination away from the president," Maher said.
"What I could see is replacing the vice president because she's not very
popular anywhere. And it didn't seem to work out. And I don't know. That's
been done before in a ticket."

A guest on his HBO show, left-wing The Atlantic writer Caitlin Flanagan,
agreed, saying Harris was not only an "off-putting person," but that she also
has "a lot of baggage that probably wouldn't do well under a lot of
scrutiny."

But Maher went further. "I just think she's a bad politician. And I don't ...
I think she's a very bright person. But I can see them doing that because a
lot of the problem with Biden being old is, 'Oh, if he dies then you know
you're gonna get this person.'"

"OK, so here's the problem with the Democratic Party. They're so boxed in by
identity politics that you cannot conceive of a Democratic ticket that
doesn't have a woman and person of color on it. And pretty soon you're gonna
line up behind that gay Latino and you're gonna have to have, you know, a
deaf Eskimo be the [nominee]."

It didn't take long for Harris to prove Maher right. The day after his weekly
show, the vice president said federal relief for the victims of Hurricane Ian
would be based on "equity" and prioritize people in "communities of color."

"It is our lowest income communities and our communities of color that are
most impacted by these extreme conditions and impacted by issues that are not
of their own making," Harris said.

Maher regularly targets young liberals for their "progressophobia," which he
said in 2021 has resulted in "a growing belief in whiteness as a malady and
white people as irredeemable."

"There is a recurrent theme on the far left that things have never been
worse," Maher said. "[Comedian] Kevin Hart expressed a view many hold when he
told The New York Times, 'You're witnessing white power and white privilege
at an all-time high.'"

"This is one of the big problems with wokeness -- that what you say doesn't
have to make sense or jibe with the facts or ever be challenged, lest the
challenge itself be conflated with racism. But saying white power and
privilege is at an all-time high is just ridiculous," he said.

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Let's go Brandon!