Speaking of snobbery and rednecks and so forth, I enjoyed this piece by Chris Pepus from In These Times: "What's the Matter with Bill Maher?" (thanks RCP).

[While] elected liberals generally avoid deriding Middle America, prominent unelected liberals have no such compunction. Consider these statements from June 2011, prompted by news that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie had declined to say whether or not he believed in evolution.

Hollywood liberal: "It's OK if this shit happens in Kansas and Alabama, but don't fuck with the smart states."

New York Times liberal: "If it's Kansas, if it's Missouri, no big deal. You know, that's the dance of the low, sloping foreheads, the middle places, right?"

Those remarks didn't take place in a cartoon on a Tea Party website. They occurred on Real Time. The Hollywood liberal was Maher himself, while the New York Times stereotype was that newspaper's media columnist David Carr.

Carr apologized, by the way.

Right-wing "populism" is the absurdity of the age, but it couldn't be so powerful without liberal help. In July 2011, Maher expressed disbelief at the extent of the GOP's support. "I understand why the Republicans get 1 percent of the vote - the richest 1 percent," Maher stated. "That other 49 percent, someone will have to explain to me." [Emphasis added]

Well, Bill, did you hear the one about the two liberals, one from Hollywood and the other from The New York Times?