Richard Belzer

On last Friday's edition of Real Time with Bill Maher, another Hollywood Leftist showed just how much he respects and supports the troops.

This time it was Richard Belzer, comedian and actor (Law & Order: SVU).

Belzer was so over the top in his disparaging remarks about the U.S. troops in Iraq that even Maher distanced himself from his comments.

I would love to see Belzer express his opinion of the intelligence of the troops, with that condescending, elitist, nose in the air superiority, to a room full of Marines, or the spouses of Marines for that matter.
Brent Baker of NewsBusters comes through with the transcript.

Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: “Having been in Iraq a few times, and Afghanistan, having met the troops one-on-one with free reign and asking them what they're doing, they're 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'. And there is a great sense of determination that what they are doing is making a difference. And yes, it has been an important mission what we're doing, come on.”

Richard Belzer: “Yeah, come on. Our soldiers now are at-”

Ros-Lehtinen: “Are a volunteer force, a volunteer force.”

Belzer: “Okay, fine. No one questions the nobility and the honor that these men and woman who are serving and what they're doing. No one questions that. But now they're targets, they're not going out. Now they're just protecting each other and they're in the middle of a civil war. So it's really not fair to have these people who volunteered their lives to protect our nation under false pretenses to now be, to have targets-”

Ros-Lehtinen, over loud applause for Belzer: “Ask them. Ask them if it's fair! Wait a minute, wait a minute. My stepson, wait a minute, my stepson-”

Belzer: “That's bullshit: ask them! They're not, they don't read twenty newspapers a day. They're under the threat of death every minute. They're not the best people to ask about the war because they're gonna die any second.”

Ros-Lehtinen: “Wait a minute! You are talking about my stepson, my stepson who just finished last week eight months of duty-”

Belzer over Ros-Lehtenin: “God bless your stepson. Doesn't mean he's a brilliant scholar about the war because he's there. (applause) And God bless him.”

Ros-Lehtinen, quite agitated: “Oh, you are though! You are though? Okay.”

Belzer: “Well I have more time, I'm not there. My life is not under threat.”

Ros-Lehtinen: “Thank you. I'm glad.”

Maher: “I think the point he's trying to make is that a 19-year-old who is in that army because he probably couldn't find other employment-”

Ros-Lehtinen: “He's a college graduate. He's a Marine officer. He volunteered for the Marines.”

Belzer: “He's the exception for the rule.”

Ros-Lehtinen: “He's not the exception for the rule. I've been there-”

Belzer: “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: “Yeah, you know because you've been there and-”

Belzer: “What, I don't fucking read!? Don't do that!”

Maher, over Belzer: “Woe, woe, woe. Come on. Wait, wait, wait. That, don't.”

Belzer: “Pardon my French.”

Maher: “That was over the line and now you're going to lose-”

Belzer: “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-”

Maher: “You're going to lose even me like Michael Moore did when he came down on Charlton Heston in Columbine.”

I wish I could say that I find that exchange to be shocking, but I can't. It's exactly what I've come to expect from the self-proclaimed enlightened liberal elite.

It's not shocking, but it is disgusting.

Belzer's tirade is a perfect example of why Americans view Hollywood celebrity types as completely out of the mainstream. They live in a bubble.

It's like they're from a different planet, with absolutely alien values and opinions.

How dare he make such sweeping and derogatory comments about our troops!

Belzer's attack was aimed at our military men and women -- not Bush or Cheney or Rumsfeld. His assault was as direct as it could be. He targeted the troops.

Now, I'm not into name-calling. It comes from an emotional response, rather than a well-reasoned argument.

But I don't think of the following as name-calling. I think of it as identifying an individual by some defining characteristics.

RICHARD BELZER IS AN UNINFORMED, WITLESS JERK.