Bill Maher returns

Adding to the fray of political pundits working without writers (now there's an interesting concept), Bill Maher returned last Friday with his first new show since November because of the writer's strike.
And it was a great show, one of the best we've seen. He had a great combination of guests -- former White House press secretary Tony Snow, entrepreneur Mark Cuban and journalist Catherine Crier. Snow, in particular, was lively and kept the debate going strong. It even ended on a peaceful note when a question from the Internet asked about devisiveness between Democrats and Republicans and Snow admitted there's a lot of it around, though not admitting that conservatives must take most of the blame.
In another move among the political shows to pick up the slack caused by the writer's strike, there was no new New Rules, one of our favorite parts. To replace it, Maher has moved up the questions from the Internet, which had run in continued discussions fueled by the web after the show was off the air, to during the show.
At any rate, it was good to see Maher back. His show has consistently been one of the best political discussion shows.
His monologue may have been missing a bit of its usual spark without the writers, and the show was minus New Rules, but talk is cheap and Maher knows how to carry on a good discussion. It's good to see him back.