Who Else But Dennis Miller?
In all the soup of political commentary — especially commentary that purports to contain humor — one figure stands out above all the others for his fairness, wit, and, more often than not, wisdom. I speak of Dennis Miller. Right, I know, you hated his football commentaries back when he was on Monday nights. But he’s not doing it anymore, so relax. Miller’s hip style of mockery first attracted attention on Saturday Night Live, when he was (arguably) the best-ever anchor of “Weekend Update.” They tried him on an evening talk show, but he crashed and burned very quickly, mostly because he really wasn’t ready to handle interviews. He worked best in those days when he was reading from a script, allowing him always to find just the right pop-culture reference to clinch his point. It was on HBO that he found his niche. Beginning each show with a monologue on some current event or trend, at some point he would say, “I don’t want to get off on a rant here, but …” and then the fireworks went
