Maher: ‘Republicanism has become a religion’

By David Edwards

HBO’s Bill Maher told CNN’s Anderson Cooper Tuesday that “as a sane person,” it was tough to watch the Republican presidential candidates debate.

“Republicanism has — it’s really become a religion,” he noted. “And when I say religion, I mean they just have a series of baseless assertions that they cleave to, you know, and it’s like, if there was just one sane person in that room to give perspective, but there wasn’t.”

“I would vote for Ron Paul if I had to pick,” Maher said. “I mean Ron Paul is at least not a panderer. He’s sincere. He’s got the right ideas about getting our troops home.”

“And, you know, I like Ron Paul. I think he’s cut from a different cloth than the rest of those people, who are, of course, selling their souls to the corporate interests who back them, and who have just horrible, society-killing ideas about America and either don’t know what’s real or don’t care,” he added.

Maher also said that he thought Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) should resign.

“At this point, yes, not because I think he did anything so incredibly awful,” he explained. “Dick Cheney used to go out and shoot birds by the hundreds that were like in a cage. To me, that’s a lot more psychotic than anything Anthony Weiner ever did. But the point is this is America. We have to live in reality.”

Watch this video from CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, broadcast June 15, 2011.