Janeane Garofalo

The latest "Real Time with Bill Maher" show erupted into a vicious 4-against-1 bashfest of conservative columnist John Fund and Republicans in general, culminating in one left-leaning guest on the panel calling for all Republicans to be "jailed."

From the start of the HBO show, Hollywood activist Janeane Garofalo, a Barack Obama supporter, expressed agitation over the overnight national popularity of GOP vice presidential nod Gov. Sarah Palin, who has helped running mate John McCain pull within the statistical margin of error of Obama in many polls.

Garofalo ridiculed her as an empty pantsuit who lacks a firm grasp of the issues.

Fund defended Palin and her experience and warned that such Palin-bashing will only create a backlash in the heartland against Democrats. "Keep it up," he taunted Garofalo and other critics on the panel.

"You guys are the kings of petty, nasty rhetoric," Garofalo snapped at Fund, who writes for the Wall Street Journal.

She then slammed the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., as a gathering of "small-minded, very petty (and) mean" delegates and speakers who simply grinded out "red meat" for the "dopes" in the red states.

"It's all limbic brain stuff," she said.

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Continuing her rant, Garofalo asserted that Republicans believe in nothing decent and should all be locked up.

"There is no evidence to support that the current incarnation of the Republican Party-hyphen-conservative movement has any tethering to decency, kindness, tolerance (or) open-mindedness," she said. "What do they stand for? Torture as a policy. They stand for homophobia. They stand for no reproductive justice. They stand for denying global warming."

A flabbergasted Fund, who was sitting next to her, asked: "So what should we do, jail them?"

"That would be great!" Garofalo exclaimed with a straight face.

After host Maher winced and offered, "That wasn't helpful," Garofalo claimed she was only joking.

Still, she claimed that compared to Republicans, "Democrats as people are fundamentally more decent."

Maher accused Fund of being "cynical" for suggesting he believes Palin has the qualifications to assume the presidency in a crisis.

Another panel guest, Salman Rushdie, joined in the Republican-bashing, saying, "They've been running the country into the ground the last eight years."

He then launched into a personal attack on Fund: "Smugness is an unattractive characteristic."

The debate got so heated that at one point, Fund knocked over his coffee mug, spilling liquid across the table. Garofalo proceeded to make fun of his mishap.

Astonishingly, Rushdie, who only recently has come out of hiding after a decades-long fatwah on his life, described the Islamic attacks on 9/11 as "brilliant."

Osama "bin Laden made a brilliant ... statement," he contended.

Garofalo drew cheers from the Los Angeles studio audience when she proclaimed Republicans stole the previous two presidential elections.

"George Bush didn't win either election," she said, suggesting Republicans tampered with "touch-screen voting" machines in 2004 to deny Democrat Sen. John Kerry victory.

"Democracy was hacked in 2004," she said.

The weekly HBO show also featured Democratic operative Paul Begala by remote feed and actress Roseanne Barr as a late panel arrival, both of whom also took the opportunity to rip McCain, Palin and Republicans.

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Previous stories:

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Janeane Garofalo show 'under fire'

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