I've heard you say that it upset you that some comedian friends, like Robin Williams, never did the show. Why didn't they?
You'd have to ask them. But I understand why many people didn't do the show. It took a lot of courage. You could look dumb. Which is why I had great love for the Alec Baldwins and Tim Robbinses of the world, who didn't do the show because they thought it would help their careers, they did it because they're political people who liked having a forum.
Baldwin and Robbins are two active liberals. Why are there so few conservatives in Hollywood?
Conservatives would tell you that there aren't that few, that there are a lot but they're really in the closet because there's a "white list," and if you allow people to know your views you will never get hired. Which is complete nonsense.
In truth, I think Hollywood is very conservative. Any place with a lot of money is very conservative. Conservatives are people who want to conserve a lot of money. Sure, in Hollywood they may throw a sop to liberal causes, but when it comes to what's important to them -- keeping their money -- I think they're very conservative.
Almost immediately after the JFK assassination, Lenny Bruce expressed condolences for the career of JFK impressionist Vaughn Meader. While aspiring to be a millennial Bruce, did you worry that you would instead become a professional casualty of a national tragedy, like Meader?
In those first few weeks after it all, I did. I did. I absolutely did.
But something in the back of my head said, "You know, everyone's a little hysterical now." Because ultimately I kept going back to what I said and every day I would get reams of e-mails and letters and cards and phone calls from very prominent people that said, "You said it for us" and "Thank you." It wasn't like I said something that was so out of the bounds of human relate-ability that no one, no matter how much they liked me in the past, would have come to my side.
I believed then and believe now that it's childish and perhaps dangerous to pretend that our enemies have no virtues, because then you underestimate them. I mean, they're not cowardly and they're not stupid.
But at the time you said, "I offer my apologies to anyone who took it wrong." Do you regret saying that?
No. I would have regretted it if I had said, "Oh my God, I don't know what I was saying. What I said was wrong, I'm sorry I said it." I said, "I'm sorry I hurt you" -- which I think when people are hurt is the polite thing to do. And the right thing to do. The country was traumatized and for a lot of people I added to that trauma a bit. It's like when you're at a party in a crowded room and someone jostles you so you spill your drink on someone. You don't try to explain it all -- you just say you're sorry.
By the way, only like a zillion people have come over to my side since then and said, "By the way, what you said was true." And that's what the show was all about -- taking what people were thinking and saying it out loud.
You only made your comments as a response to one of your guests, conservative author Dinesh D'Souza, who was the first to say that he disagreed with President Bush's assertion that the 9/11 hijackers were cowards and went so far as to call them "warriors." Why do you think D'Souza escaped criticism?
That is a question I have been asking. Because I like Dinesh but boy, he took a cab after that. I never heard from him. He never stuck his head up, and he'd been a guest on our show many times. Lots of people came to my defense -- people you never would have thought, like Rush Limbaugh. But Dinesh stayed way under the radar. He is not a warrior.
Ari Fleischer chastised you from the podium, saying your remarks proved that Americans "need to watch what they say, watch what they do," though he said his remarks had been misconstrued.
I could make the exact same claim. I can say -- "Hey, my thing came out wrong, too." I mean, if he could say, "Hey, in the heat of the moment that came out in that way, but you all know me, you know I didn't mean to suggest that we should turn this into a Stalinist country where we all watch what we say," then I should have been able to do so as well. I said something that probably came out the wrong way, like him. I don't think he's a creepy guy purposely calling for a police state.
What do you drive?
Well, I traded my big Mercedes in for a hybrid about a year ago. A Toyota Prius. I talked about it an awful lot on the show. And I was constantly wondering "Why doesn't Toyota send me a little fruit basket?" And then it dawned on me: They don't want to sell this car, either! They're a for-profit car manufacturer. They don't care if I'm pushing the Prius -- they don't even want to make the Prius.
Other than that, what sacrifices are you making? Your book argues that few of us are doing enough.
A lot of the ones I talk about in the book have to do with keeping pressure on politicians and I hope that people would consider me at the forefront of doing that. I understand that not everyone has had the forums I've had to do so, but they all can do it in their own way.
The book has posters, like the ones from World War II, calling for sacrifices, and a lot of the posters say "Tell Them in Washington," and I think in the kind of republic we live in where our representatives are so closely connected to the howling of the masses, the masses need to howl more about what they think is right or wrong with their government.
But they don't. They give their overwhelming approval for a war that has not gone so well so far, at least domestically.
Next page: "The war just made these guys bigger liars than they were before"