Bill Maher defended First Lady's childhood exercise campaign

The First Lady's initiative to fight the epidemic of childhood obesity in America is completely uncontroversial, a cable television show host recently said.

"If you think Michelle Obama is after your freedom because she merely suggests that our kids should exercise more and eat a little broccoli along with their lard, you don't deserve a place in the free market of ideas," Bill Maher, host of HBO's Real Time, said Friday.

He quipped, "You belong at the Cheesecake Factory."

Obama's program "Let's Move," which completed its first year in service this week, has been derided by several right-wing pundits whom Maher attacked one-by-one, from Sarah Palin to Rush Limbaugh.

Maher likened the right wing's attacks on Obama's campaign to Tommy DeVito's behavior in the mob film Goodfellas.

"You saying I use too much salt? What am I, salty to you? There, take some salt down your throat," he said in character.

Maher said that most of the campaigns launched by First ladies have been tame, such as First lady Lady Bird Johnson's suggestion to plant wildflowers along America's highways in the 1960s. The public's reaction was positive, he said.

"I'm not saying the right objects to Mrs. Obama's efforts because the teabaggers are stupid, or because they're hysterical, or because they hate black people, though all of that is true," he said to applause.

Maher left his final attack for Rush Limbaugh, questioning how "a drug addicted fat man" could give respectable health advice.

"Rush, I have proof that no one in the government is forcing you to eat right and exercise," he said. "You!"

Earlier in the show, Maher told his panel that he believed that right-wing political shows have lost their popularity with Americans.

"That fever I think has broken," he said.

This video is from HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, broadcast Feb. 4, 2011, swiped via Crooks and Lairs.