I’d call this the intellectual highlight of last night’s Bill Maher show except that later Maher ended up asking Levi Johnston if he uses condoms now, so, hey. This is what I meant the other day about Democrats wanting to lash out at voters for being racist and crazy and Hitlerian enough to elect Republicans, but that’s too much of a risk given how many centrists and independents are committed to voting for tea party candidates next month. You don’t want to alienate any constituencies you might otherwise be able to win back in 2012. Better for the White House to stick to a more gently condescending line about voters “not thinking clearly” or whatever and let B-list surrogates like Rachel Maddow and Meathead here do the heavy lifting.

Reiner and his fellow travelers are a lot more comfortable with Hitler analogies than I am, but if we’re going to play a game that lamentably stupid and offensive, I suppose I could chip in by noting that it ain’t the GOP making headlines lately for fearmongering speeches about shadowy foreigners threatening to destroy our democracy from within. And the hate! Like P.J. O’Rourke says, don’t forget the hate:

They don’t just hate our Republican, conservative, libertarian, strict constructionist, family values guts. They hate everybody’s guts. And they hate everybody who has any. Democrats hate men, women, blacks, whites, Hispanics, gays, straights, the rich, the poor, and the middle class.

Democrats hate Democrats most of all. Witness the policies that Democrats have inflicted on their core constituencies, resulting in vile schools, lawless slums, economic stagnation, and social immobility. Democrats will do anything to make sure that Democratic voters stay helpless and hopeless enough to vote for Democrats…

This is not an election on November 2. This is a restraining order. Power has been trapped, abused and exploited by Democrats. Go to the ballot box and put an end to this abusive relationship. And let’s not hear any nonsense about letting the Democrats off if they promise to get counseling.

As always, there’s no political argument so obnoxious that the Maher audience won’t applaud for it provided that it comes from the right side. Big cheers for Reiner near the end here, natch. Exit question: Hey, is that Jake Tapper?