Actor Ron Silver has nothing but contempt for Republicans, especially after they went after his President. All this week ABC’s Politically Incorrect is being taped at the Warner Theater in Washington, DC. On Monday’s show, MRC analyst Jessica Anderson documented, Silver, who is now co-star of the NBC sit-com Veronica’s Closet, scoffed at how Republicans control "the people's House" when "they don't like the people." Later he charged that the 13 House managers "are every bit as flawed as our President, but they were lucky and, thank God, they didn't have Starr with $40 million going after them for seven years."
Thursday’s guest list included Sam Donaldson and the stridently leftist Richard Belzer, star of NBC’s Homicide. Politically Incorrect airs daily after Nightline and Washington area viewers should be aware that WJLA this week is not delaying the airing for 30 minutes as it usually does to accommodate Extra! This week Politically Incorrect is running at 12:07am.
On the February 8 Politically Incorrect Silver appeared with fellow liberal Ann Richards and opposite Republican Congressman Matt Salmon and Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak who more than held his own. Here are a couple of Silver’s diatribes, the first of which will be posted Thursday morning on the MRC home page after Kristina Sewell cues it up:
-- Silver: "I think it's really an important question to figure out what the Republican Party is gonna do after this. I mean, they've shut down the government, and they are very proud of it, and then they didn't want to be blamed for it. Then in '94, they came in, the revolution, right, the class of '94 came in and they said, ‘We're grassroots, and the people,’ and here we are in '99 and they're saying, ‘The thing wrong with the country is the people because they don't get it and they're not outraged enough.’"
Sajak: "No."
Silver over cheers and applause from audience: "And wait, wait, Pat, let me just finish this. Now what has the Republican Party done when they had the House, the people's House? But they don't like the people. But what have they done? [Laughter from audience] What have they done? They renamed National Airport. They tried to shut down the government. [Cheers and applause] And they're trying to get into your bedroom to find out what you're doing. What kind of party is that?"
-- Silver: "Pat, Congressman [Matt Salmon], is there no sense of shame on your part or the party about the clear, cheap hypocrisy on the part of many of the House managers and the party? You're talking about Henry Hyde, Helen Chenoweth, Bob Livingston, Bob Barr....Isn't there any, wait, is there, is there no sense on your part that the Founding Fathers, your 13 House managers, are every bit as flawed as our President, but they were lucky and, thank God they didn't have Starr with $40 million going after them for seven years."
-- Silver: "Matt [Salmon], don't you think the party has a problem? You're clearly hostages to the right-wing fringe of your party."
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From the London Daily Telegraph, January 2, 1997:
Clinton spends New Year with huggers and shakers
By Hugh Davies in Washington
THERE are those who enjoy champagne, food and friends at the New Year - and then there is Bill Clinton.
He has just spent a few days at Hilton Head, South Carolina, at the "Renaissance" festival of soul-searching by the sea, a dawn-to-midnight exercise in empathy and enlightenment that ends with everybody holding hands and hugging.
It is where those who consider themselves to be the liberal movers and shakers in America retreat with their children to "bond" as one big happy extended family and muse on the problems facing their lives and country.
Mr. Clinton and his wife, Hillary, cannot get enough of these annual get-togethers. It was their 13th session. Fellow guests included Barbara Streisand, author Gail Sheehy, Lady Bird Johnson, sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Jaws author Peter Benchley, Yale law professor Stephen Carter, Apollo astronaut Walt Cunningham and actor Ron Silver.