So you buy Playboy for the articles eh? Well, this month you just may want to do so as the featured interview is with the Oscar-winning director Michael Moore whose controversial film Fahrenheit 9/11 is set to hit theaters June 25th after its impressive Palm d’Or winning debut at the Cannes Film Festival.
The film is described in today’s press release as a scathing indictment of the government’s post-September 11th actions. “The tragedy was a bonanza for the [Bush] administration,” Moore tells Playboy. “Immediately after the dead were buried, Bush’s people realized they had a golden opportunity.”
In the interview Moore discusses his latest movie and enhances his reputation as the left’s most outspoken provocateur by attacking an amazing array of topics. Following are selected quotes from Moore’s July Playboy Interview conducted by contributing editor David Sheff:
On Bush’s intelligence: “He is not a very bright man. Like a lot of people who aren’t very bright, he knows the best way to get ahead is to be around smart people. That’s survival instinct, not brains.”
On the ties between the Bush and Bin Laden families: “If you tell Americans the Bushes have been in business with the Bin Ladens for years, they think you’re a lunatic. But then, why would Bush allow a Saudi jet to fly around the country to pick up all the Bin Ladens — relatives of the number one suspect in a mass killing — so they could get out of the country the week after 9/11?”
On meeting Howard Dean: “My wife and I went to meet with Howard Dean with the idea of supporting him. We brought our checkbook. But we weren’t in the room with him five minutes when we thought, Geez, this guy is kind of a prick. We didn’t write the check.”
On why Oprah should be President: “The Democrats need to start thinking like the Republicans. Who is our Reagan? Who is our Schwarzenegger? Oprah would be a perfect president. She’s got good politics. She’s got a good heart. She’ll have us up Jazzercising at six in the morning and reading books. How can that be bad for the country?”
On the title of Fahrenheit 9/11: “[It’s] the temperature of hysteria that has allowed the Bush administration to get away with a series of unconscionable acts since 9/11. They used the 3,000 victims of the terrorist attack as a cover to enact their own right-wing agenda.”
On hiring Israelis to kill Osama bin Laden: “They’re better at this sort of thing than we are. I don’t support assassination, but let’s face facts. Israel wanted to kill the Hamas leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, and they took him out….Get the culprits, not their neighbors and people who look like them.”
On O’Reilly and Fox News: “They’re preaching to the converted. Only 1 million to 2 million people watch Fox News at any given time. Let’s not waste our time worrying about something as irrelevant as Fox News. If you have cable, it’s a great thing to tune in to for a laugh….O’Reilly is a cartoon. Neil Cavuto is all pompous sincerity. Ann Coulter’s trip is an act.”
On gay marriage: “Here’s what I want to know about gay marriage: Has anybody told the gays and lesbians what marriage is? We married people are all sitting here asking, ‘Why are they so damn eager to do this?'”
On his attraction to Hillary Clinton: “I’ve always been attracted to her….Hillary is not uptight at all. She’s got a great sense of humor. She’s got the best laugh. She’s feisty. I like women who are strong and smart.”
On Republicans “wasting” time trying to impeach Clinton in the 1990’s: “Clinton was particularly horrific to them because he represented the guy in high school who got all the babes. It drove them crazy. If you’re Newt Gingrich, Dennis Hastert, Trent Lott or any of those guys, you remember well who the Bill Clinton was in your high school. Those guys never got to go out with the cheerleaders. In fact they had to become cheerleaders — literally in the cases of Bush and Lott.”
