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Stewart Spars With Bennett Over Gay Marriage

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Posted on Jun 7, 2006
Jon Stewart and Bill Bennett

“Daily Show” host Jon Stewart, right, mixes it up with conservative author Bill Bennett on gay marriage.

The “Daily Show” host revealed conservative author Bill Bennett as being intellectually bankrupt in his opposition to gay marriage. (Satisfying: Bennett acknowledged that his side has lost the debate.)

Crooks and Liars:

I shouldn’t be surprised anymore when I see Jon Stewart take a conservative ideologue to the woodshed because he does it every time he tries. Bill Bennett is the latest one to get played by Stewart. The topic is gay marriage and once again Jon gets the better of a conservative pundit.

Stewart: So why not encourage gay people to join in in that family arrangement if that is what provides stability to a society?

Bennett: Well I think if gay..gay people are already members of families…

Stewart: What? (almost spitting out his drink)

Bennett: They’re sons and they’re daughters..

Stewart: So that’s where the buck stops, that’s the gay ceiling.

Bennett: Look, it’s a debate about whether you think marriage is between a man and a women.

Stewart: I disagree, I think it’s a debate about whether you think gay people are part of the human condition or just a random fetish.

Wasn’t that a basic yet perfectly thought out idea? It goes downhill for Bennett from there.

I think for most of us-we’re so used to these right wing talking heads debating against lame duck liberals on television that always get bull dozed by personalities such as Bennett; we are then amazed how effortlessly Stewart handles these guys. Jon always boils the debate down to it’s simplest form which usually causes people like Bennett to look foolish. It doesn’t say much for the class of pundits representing Democratic values when Stewart so easily defeats them.

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By Richard J. Palmer, June 13, 2006 at 3:13 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Pitting someone like Bennett with Jon is like the big fat bully in grade school trying to argue with the first class leader.  Bennett, the great gambler, can only sputter with someone as cool and resourceful as Jon.  But he deserves what he gets because he like his right-wing cohorts has always been the great hypocritical moralizers.  They are about as effective as Nancy with her “Just Say No To Drugs” idea.  How ignorant can you get?  Bravo for Jon and maybe someday we will see gays as equal human beings and being gay will not cause any special comment..something like being left-handed.
They used to be forced to use their right hand.  Now, that is a thing of the past.  Would that the same thing would happen to being gay.

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By Frances the Cockatoo, June 11, 2006 at 8:14 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Bennett is 100% hypocrite. He has absolutely no credibility on anything. He’s a proven liar and big-money gambler. And still, he has followers, people who love him and all of his ideas, and they think he makes sense and they could care less about hypocrisy. Meet the 51.

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By Joe, June 10, 2006 at 6:31 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Bennet is a big FAT, self appointed Morality police chief, and a gambler. When did you PPL make the mistake of taking this tub or month old LARD seriouly? His opinions are worth less than used toilet paper.

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By mark arrowood, June 9, 2006 at 12:20 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Freedom is only freedom for the common man/woman if that freedom complies with the definition of freedom of the people currently in power.

With the current administration, Freedom is defined as a very narrow set of values relating to a harsh interpretation of religious convictions not related to any current set of true Christian beliefs but a bastardized and aborted/distorted view of what these values of free life should be.

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By Joe M, June 9, 2006 at 10:40 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

The only difference between President Bush and the Rev. Fred Phelps is Phelps attends military funerals.

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By madeline boyle, June 8, 2006 at 8:29 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

From the few lesbian/gay people I’ve met in my seven decades on earth, they are among the kindest, smartest, most gifted and responsible citizens among us. I wonder if someone could come up with statistics about their “expected-to-be-evil” lives.  I don’t think I’ve ever heard of this in the horrible crimes of rape and murder, child abuse and torture that we learn about everyday on the news.

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By Grant, June 8, 2006 at 11:54 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Heather, Come to Canada, you can here!  (Run quickly before they build the Wall)

Border

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By Jeff S., June 7, 2006 at 1:02 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

As a typical 34 yo heterosexual man, I really don’t care about gay marriage one way or the other.  I am actually surprised that people seem so strong against a lifestyle that they will ever really encounter (they might know gays but come on, who really cares if a person decides to marry someone else in their own gender?).

I tend to be liberal about a person making up their own mind and I don’t want to be bothered of deciding what strangers want to do.  With that said I have to say that generally I think Bennet’s presentation of his opinions (and I disagree with him usually) are well-thought, sincere and polite.  I have always admired him for that.  Seeing such a steady conservative icon blink was very surprising.  Stewart is incredibly simple and sharp and never seems to use talking points.  Bennett seemed to lose his footing several times during the conversation.  It’s amazing Stewart came from a year of MTV summer beach teen party!!! When I hear that a famous actor or a singer is on the Today Show I feel cheated.  When a political figure is on I feel the same rush when a hockey game is on. Stewart is almost always on for such iterviews.

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By scout29c, June 7, 2006 at 12:44 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

The amendment never really had a chance of passing.  It was the act of voting for, and especially, the voting against it that was important.  It’s all part of the strategy for the mid-term election. 

Marrying Fags are Burning Flags and Eating Aborted Fetuses.

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By John Earl, June 7, 2006 at 10:35 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Bennett looked pretty silly...but somewhat smug too. He’s got the awesome power of bigotry on his side, afterall.

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By Heather, June 7, 2006 at 10:31 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

I’m a lesbian, and since I can’t marry my wonderful partner of three years; I’d like to ask Jon Stewart to marry me!!!!
He’s brilliant!  He gets right to the meat of the matter!  It’s really hot! ha

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