Dennis Miller on Falwell; Opie & Anthony

This is a partial transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," May 16, 2007, that has been edited for clarity.

BILL O'REILLY, HOST: Thanks for staying with us. I'm Bill O'Reilly. In the "Miller Time" segment tonight, Dennis is doing a daily three-hour syndicated radio program. Therefore, he's locked in on the key issues of the day. And he joins us now from Los Angeles. All right, up front we have the debate. What did you think?

DENNIS MILLER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, you know, Bill, I don't like the niceties of the debates we have nowadays. You know, they're not even like debates. It looks like a white-collar police lineup or something. I say we go with Charlie Rose's set. We don't augment it at all. We just let these guys carry their own chairs in, have no ties. Smoke'em if you got them. Give them two hours and let them thrash it out. That's what I'm looking for.

O'REILLY: So you want a free for all. You want a free for all. You know, I kind of agree with you, that it's starchy and that you've got to wait for the moments, and that it's too calculated. That you put them in the lion's cage, you know, and you go, "On your mark, get set, go." But if you do that, that's anarchy and chaos, and we can't have that.

MILLER: Well, it's like the third Mad Max film, "Thunderdome". Two enter, one leave. They got to that moment last night where Ron Paul, I think, just made Rudy the Republican candidate. That was like tee-ball. He came out and set it there, and Rudy knocked it out of the park. I think he's going to be the Republican nominee. And I think Huck Hound or whatever his name is out of Arkansas. I can't agree with Morris that he'll be the presidential — but I think he could be the VP, Huckabee Hound.

O'REILLY: What about Romney? What do you think of him? He's pretty slick.

MILLER: Yeah. You know what? I like Mitt Romney, but I do kind of like what McCain said, that he doesn't, you know at least McCain — I'm not voting for John because I think he's a little old. But McCain sticks by his guns. Romney has sort of slid it around a little. When you look that good and you slide it around a little, there's a snake oil salesman vibe about him that might be a little weird for me.

O'REILLY: All right.

MILLER: I'm a Rudy guy.

O'REILLY: Jerry Falwell, you saw the beginning of the program. You know, he's dead for three minutes, and they're kicking the living daylights out of him. What do you think?

MILLER: Well, Falwell didn't feel well, so it was farewell. And Bill, I might depart from you on this one in that I think what Marcotte said was reprehensible. I think Chris Hitchens' religion is hating people who are religious. But I thought that was irresponsible.

But the three newspaper things you showed didn't bother me. This man led a turbulent life. I'm not a big Reverend Falwell fan. And in the wake of a guy's departure like that, I think you're going to see some of that flotsam and jetsam come up. I didn't find what they wrote in the commentaries, at least the snippets you showed — I didn't read them in full — I didn't find that that reprehensible.

O'REILLY: All right. But they're basically saying he was an immoral man in, you know, less than 24 hours after he's dead. I don't care what they say next week. But isn't there a decorum here? Isn't there any class at all that we just let the family and the friends of Jerry Falwell have a few days?

MILLER: Well, I think you should put the guy in the ground. I think that the long knives should come out right after you put the shovels away. But not everybody thinks that way. There are people who got up on a daily basis and hate this guy's guts.

If they would boil it down to what the newspaper did, that's fine with me. At least that to me is showing a little decorum. The Marcotte thing, the Hitchens thing, yes, bad form, rude. But you know what? I don't care what anybody says about me while I'm alive much less when I'm dead, OK.

O'REILLY: But you're a different person, Dennis. You're not the mainstream guy, all right? I keep trying to explain that to you. Now one more question, and then I'll get to the "Opie & Anthony" thing. Do you think that the far left is much more hateful than the far right? I mean, we don't have a big far right in this country anymore. But do you think — for example, you could call Falwell and his followers far right. Is the far left more hateful than they?

MILLER: Well, first off I think Falwell to some degree was a hateful guy. I got to say that. But as far as my experience, and that's all I can go on, and I'm a pretty good litmus test because I've been on the left and I have been on the right. I would say the left, in my experience, is more hateful, just for me. I'm not saying across the board.

O'REILLY: That's what I think, too. Is there a reason?

MILLER: I don't know. My case, maybe they think I've betrayed them or something because they thought I started out over there. But I don't think they were really paying attention. I've always been off the reservation as far as any sort of lockstep goes. I'm my own man. I think my own way. Maybe they're disappointed and they loathe me now. But I think if they were listening, I always took my own stances. So I can't tell why they do. But in my case, I find the left a little more hateful.

O'REILLY: And you know who else are their own men? Opie & Anthony. Aren't they? I mean, these are two pioneers of broadcasting. These are two courageous guys who are willing to go and discuss the rape of the first lady and the secretary of state. I mean these, these are the men that we should be looking at, right?

MILLER: I honestly have to say, Bill, I have never heard the Opie guy and Anthony show. But I will say this. If you want to interview a midget crackhead, fine. I'll check it out if I want to. But don't beat me over the head with it after you get caught out by sponsors and say that it was a Thomas Payne or a First Amendment issue. It's an interview with a midget crackhead.

O'REILLY: Right. Yes. Let's bring in Charles Manson, and we'll discuss with him. And then when he kills the cameraperson over there you go, "Hey, we didn't know he was going to do that." You're absolutely right. It's such a charade.

MILLER: You do what you want. If I want to listen to it, I'll listen to it, but don't beat me over the head with the First Amendment. It's a midget crackhead interview.

O'REILLY: All right, Dennis Miller everybody. Give him a round of applause. Listen to his radio program. And you can catch more Miller Sunday nights here on the FOX News Channel, 10 Eastern on "The Half-Hour News Hour".

Watch "The O'Reilly Factor" weeknights at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET and listen to the "Radio Factor!"

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