Speaking of candidates who make Hillary Clinton seem appealing by comparison, here’s Carlson trying to explain to the Paulnut morons seen carrying those “rEVOLution” signs at rallies that love isn’t exactly the core value of the Bircher ethos. I wonder what the ratio is in Paul’s base between true believing libertarians who really do long for a return to small government laissez faire constitutionalism and Truthers, tax protesters, college kids looking for an “alternative” candidate, and other assorted characters from the Star Wars bar scene of American politics looking to register a protest vote and coalescing around the guy who believes in the North American Union and a new Gulf of Tonkin inicident in the offing in the Persian Gulf. Ice that cake with a thick layer of Strange New Respect for him among leftists because of his anti-war stance and you’ve got a guy whom its downright trendy to like, especially given the weak Republican field that’s sharply at odds with most of the public on Iraq.

The most amusing part here is Maher’s sheepish confession that he doesn’t agree with Paul on everything after Carlson brings up some his more stridently libertarian proposals. That’s an odd position for a self-professed libertarian like Maher to take, but as Jonah Goldberg once said, he’s not really a libertarian — he’s a libertine in search of a label that’s slightly more exalted.