The gimmick is equally lame whether you happen to agree with the lame-o's overall perspective or not. In fact it's not only lame logically but actually does far more harm than good to one's argument.
As anyone who ever reads a post at The Mud Report knows the writer of these lines wouldn't be on Rush Limbaugh's X-mas card list and that on occasion Maher's musings have probably been a far fairer fit. But when Bill Maher calls Sarah Palin [or anybody else] disgusting names or belittles her children he's not only wrongheaded, he's wrong. There's plenty of room for argument, comedic or not, with Sarah Palin's politics, there's zero for the rest. Maher's salacious name calling gives him a bad name not Palin, it effectively dismisses any further comments he has about any legitimate policy topic and it gives the object of his personal attacks the perfect platform to sidestep any of Maher's more valid critiques.
Same goes in spades for Rush Limbaugh. Certainly his arguments about publicly funded birth control have been discounted to zero by his personal insults toward an individual rather than toward her perspective. There are huge differences all around the political spectrum, plenty of real differences to debate or make jokes about for Bill, Rush and anyone else without demeaning themselves and their arguments by name calling.
