Give this to Bill Maher: he knows how to make a run-of-the-mill Tea Party discussion more interesting. The blunt HBO host--as per usual--didn't pull his punches when Fareed Zakaria baited him with a few questions on Glenn Beck as the spiritual guide of the movement. In typical form, Maher responded by comparing the weepy Fox News host to the founder of Scientology: "I think he's doing what some people before him have done like L. Ron Hubbard, who's a novelist and decided, you know what, it's a much easier gig to be a religious leader."

After Zakaria chuckled and noted that being a religious leader is also "tax exempt," Mayer elaborated on his well-rehearsed (see: Religulous) thesis: "I mean, there's a reason they call them the flock, because they're sheep and they'll believe anything. So I think Glenn Beck is segueing from what he was mostly--a political preacher--to a preacher preacher. It is an easier gig and you make more money--you know, Jim Baker kind of money. And so, yes, I think that could be something."


[H/T: Mediaite]

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Erik Hayden