Where Are Their Friends?

I have just lost one of my best friends to cancer. He was a great guy and a great friend. One of the things that made him a great friend was I could count on him to tell me the truth even when I didn’t want to hear it. He would tell you straight up that the girl you were dating wasn’t all that great for you or that your golf swing had more flaw than swing. He was sort of like a hillbilly Socrates in that he usually sent you the cold hard facts by asking you a question. There is an old saying that the truth without compassion is brutality and Bill usually had compassion but when I was being stubborn he could be a brute. When I was being a little big for my britches or getting ready to have a, “Hey watch this!” moment he let you know it. I was watching the television last weekend I had three occasions to ask myself, “Where are their friends?”

The first was while I was watching a guy I really like, Governor Mike Huckabee on Fox News. After watching Gov. Huckabee do a lot of guest spots on its other shows, Fox decided to give the Governor his own talk show. Being a great guest and an outstanding leader doesn’t mean you are automatically a great host. I watched the show the first time it was on and cringed but figured he was a good speaker and was used to talking to folks after being a pastor so he would grow into the role. After this weekend with the three Miss Americas and Rosie Perez someone should speak to the Governor. Does he know anyone who will tell him he makes a good talking head but if he ever wants to be taken seriously again for any major political office he should stop doing his talk show? Two of the Miss Americas singing “Leaving on a Jet Plane” was ironic in that that it is exactly what Fox should do with this show, send it somewhere on vacation. Does Fox not have a budget for writers? If the monologue jokes were any lamer they would have to come out in a wheelchair. Please, Governor Huckabee, for the sake of all conservatives everywhere stop being a third rate Jimmy Kimmel and start putting your organization together for 2012. (more…)