Miller talks politics, but no chance he'll run
Tony Hicks
Contra Costa (Calif.) Times
Nov. 17, 2003 12:00 AM
If Dennis Miller were a politician, the worst job in the building would
belong
to his press secretary - the one responsible for smoothing the feathers
he's
ruffled and delivering the toned-down translation of the boss' stance on
various topics.
Miller, the comedian, actor, former football commentator and rising
political
pundit, would need an entire damage-control staff.
Which is why, as ***y as it seems to so many GOP officials in California,
he
won't run for Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer's job in 2004.
"I'd have to spend every day pretending to tolerate people like Barbara
Boxer,"
Miller, 50, says from his Santa Barbara home. "I can't imagine sitting
holed up
in subcommittee meetings where you have to say things like, 'Well, I
respect
the opinion of my esteemed colleague, but (expletive) that, man. I'm out
of
there.' There's no way I could take that.
"It doesn't pay well, either. I know it's verboten to say in America these
days, but I like making money."
Miller recently became hot Republican property after publicly sup****ting
the
war in Iraq and Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger.
America will soon hear Miller's views, just not from Capitol Hill. He
recently
inked a multiyear deal to host a political talk show on CNBC, beginning in
January.
"I haven't figured out the format," he says. "I do know I'm going to get
sloppy
with the news."
It's back to basics for Miller, who became famous on Saturday Night Live
more
than a decade ago hosting the fake-news segment "Weekend Update."
Some of his views have changed, but not the delivery. The opinions come
like
water from a broken spigot.
Miller once called himself a lifelong Democrat and routinely ripped the
Republican "revolution" of the mid-'90s. Then terrorists rammed airplanes
into
American skyscrapers.
"Anyone who says they know how they're going to vote the rest of their
lives, I
don't take seriously," he says. "I was (angry) after 9/11, mostly at those
stupid people who said that somehow America was responsible."
Miller talks fast, and he thinks even faster. But he's not an abject
motormouth, nor is he one to merely keep quiet for a couple of seconds
while
itching for an opening.
After making pro-Bush comments at a Las Vegas fund-raiser last month,
fellow
guest Elton John told the crowd Miller was the reason the world hates
America.
"I think Elton John is a musical genius," Miller responds. "But I couldn't
care
less what he thinks. I saw Elton's toupee afterward, and it said it liked
the
show."
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