Dennis Miller on William Arkin
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}This is a partial transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," February 7, 2006, that has been edited for clarity.
BILL O'REILLY, HOST: Thanks for staying with us. I'm Bill O'Reilly.
In the "Miller Time" segment tonight, our man Dennis has been following the NBC News/Washington Post mercenary story, along with articulate Obama and global warming. Mr. Miller joins us now from Los Angeles.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}You worked at CNBC for a while. Were you surprised, are you surprised they employ a guy like William Arkin who is, you know, really insulting the military in very personal ways?
DENNIS MILLER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, listen, I think at the very least the guy's a buffoon for using language that is that charged. I mean, for God's sakes, Bill Arkin, these are kids over there defending our country. Why do you have to use such — you know, the language was meant to incite. And that's what made me very angry about it.
Listen, when he talks about them being mercenaries or the amenities they receive being too much, what do you think these people are going to get at the Oscars later this month? It's probably more than a kid would make over there in three hitches in a row.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}O'REILLY: Yes, but what we couldn't understand, look, 95 percent of Americans feel the way that you — well, 85 percent of Americans feel the way that you do and I do. But what I can't understand is this guy appeared on NBC News there 80 times at least, 80 times, Arkin. And we did, you know, a trace on him. And we found out he's a far-left bomb thrower from way back. He was never identified. The Washington Post to this minute continues to employ him.
And I'm just not getting it. Do you understand the mentality of that?
MILLER: Well, first off, I should say I never trust a pacifist who skis atomic skis. But I would also say that I don't think this goes up the chain to Immelt and Jeff Zucker. When I worked over there, trust me, I couldn't get them on the phone.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}O'REILLY: Oh, but we can. And we — we asked them for a statement. They all know it. Immelt knows it, Zucker knows it, Wright knows it. And their statement came back, "Well, he wrote it on a Washington Post web site." Not "we condemn it." Not "we don't like it." Nothing like that. That's what cooked him.
MILLER: Well, listen I think that this Arkin guy is a low rent slob. And I think he got caught out here. I don't know what the secular progressives are thinking in this country right now. They got to pull it together. Because either we hang together or we hang separately.
Now if he doesn't agree with this war, fine. He doesn't have to use that language about the kids fighting for our lives, though.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}O'REILLY: All right. We had two very lively women on top of the program, and both said that it was an insult to call Barack Obama articulate. What say you?
MILLER: Well, you know, Bill, I'm not a racist myself. I've always felt why hate somebody based solely on the color of their skin when, you know, if you just take the time to get to know them, there are so many more viable reasons to hate an individual.
O'REILLY: You can hate them so much more deeper.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}MILLER: Yes, there's a layering there, a texture that I look for. Listen, I think that Bush has become such a locust for schadenfreude that even when he says something like I think he's an articulate man, they hate him for it.
But listen, Bush has always had, I think, the disenfranchised in this country. I think he has them in a great place in his heart. I think that he has a little guilt that he feels, reflexive guilt from his patrician upbringing. And I think as he's made the long mosey from Yale to y'all, I think he does care for people.
O'REILLY: He's certainly got more black American opposition (ph). But you're in show biz. I mean, you know a guy like Chris Rock, OK? Now if you say to Chris Rock, "Hey, man, you're pretty articulate out there. You get your point across," and everything else. Is Chris Rock going to slap you? Say, "Don't tell me that"?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}MILLER: No, Chris Rock would think this is crap, I think. And I think Obama does, too. I think Obama could score himself some points early in the race here as a guy — and by race I didn't mean anything — but early in the race here by just coming out and saying, "Listen, I accept the president's compliment. Thank you very much." He would look like a pragmatic man.
O'REILLY: That would be a great move. That would.
MILLER: I believe it would be a good gesture. Because they just — they hate Bush now. The racial dialogue in this country is at a — is at a crossroads right now, Bill. It just seems to me that...
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}O'REILLY: Very intense.
MILLER: Yes.
O'REILLY: Very intense. And we are all — and I am the whitest guy in the world. You're pretty white, but you're behind a beard so nobody can know. But really, look at this Celtic face. I mean, you just don't get any — I go out in the sun and my thumb falls off. So I am Mr. Glacier.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}MILLER: You're whiter than Johnny Winter.
O'REILLY: That's right. I mean, Johnny envies me. All right? So I don't know. I'm not in the world. But I hear two intelligent black women telling me this is the worst thing in the world. All right.
MILLER: Well, I think racial dialogue in this country now has little to do almost with the color of our skin and everything to do with the thinness of it.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}O'REILLY: Yes, I mean, I don't know the rules. I think somebody should write a book so I do know them. Because I certainly — you know me, Dennis. Would I ever want to offend anyone? No.
MILLER: Bill, you're — you're just a...
O'REILLY: Rosie O'Donnell and I are in the two people in this world that don't want to offend anyone.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Global warming. You getting hot out there or what?
MILLER: Well, listen, I — I was starting to believe in it until the U.N. said they believe in it. And now I'm pretty sure I don't believe in it, because I just don't trust the U.N.
But the fact is, Bill, that I think it is getting warmer. My next car I'll probably buy a hybrid for my son, just to hedge my bets. But the fact is, I don't know how much impact mankind has on it. You know, to think that we can make the universe hotter or our atmosphere hotter; we can't thin traffic after Dodger games, for God's sakes.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}O'REILLY: We are spewing a lot of goop. If you go to Shanghai, China — have you done any gigs in China? They'd love you there, by the way.
MILLER: I'm big in the Shanghai improv...
O'REILLY: But if you go to Shanghai to Mr. Laughs in Shanghai, I mean— Mr. Semi-laughs. Not a lot of laughs in China in general. But they're spewing stuff like crazy, and so is India and so is the USA. So it is in the air.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}When you fly in to L.A. I mean, that mask comes down even if there's nothing wrong with the plane.
MILLER: Well, I would say this, Bill. I think my generation's been good for the environment. I'm 53 years old. I remember when I was a young boy, 12 years old, we used to go to Dairy Queen. When we were finished we'd back out onto the highway and chuck every piece of litter in the car right out the window. Nobody cared at all.
We don't litter anywhere. And we haven't pulled everything together, but we'll get this together eventually. The fact is we're not going to invent the next thing to replace this until we run out of oil. This has always been a society that runs on commerce. Even Thomas Alva Edison had a lot of patents. And I think we'll fix this when the need the next thing.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}And I don't trust some of these alternative forms of fuel. Ethanol, fuel on the cob, hydrogen cars? Yes, I want to be in a mall parking lot with a thousand mini-Hindenburgs.
O'REILLY: I think we've got to go to fuel cells. I think that's the wave of the future.
Dennis Miller everybody.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}MILLER: May I have the last word?
O'REILLY: That's right, Dennis. I'm giving you the last word, man. Go.
MILLER: Wench.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}O'REILLY: Wench? Is that what you said, wench?
MILLER: You heard wench.
O'REILLY: We'll question the Shanghai Mr. Laughs.
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