Bill Maher on Republican faux-scandal fixation: 'What's wrong with these people?'

In a post on Tuesday on his blog, "Real Time" host Bill Maher warned Republicans not to think that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R)'s Bridgegate scandal is going to blow over and leave the outspoken governor unscathed.

The closing of the George Washington Bridge, he warned, is not going to turn out to be another faux-scandal that evaporates upon close scrutiny like "the birth certificate, the New Black Panthers, Fast and Furious, Solyndra, Pigford, anything Eric Holder ever did and that time Kathleen Sebelius violated the Hatch Act."

Most liberals, Maher opined, react to Republican scandals by saying, “What the hell is Pigford? What’s wrong with these people?”

This is, however, he wrote, "the new norm."

"In the absence of actual governing or an urge to tackle the problems facing the nation, even just a little bit, this is what we’ve got left to yell at each other about," he said. "This is our future. There are no bills to debate over, which is how we’d normally yell at each other. There is no national conversation happening because, well, what’s the point?"

"Even if Democrats pushed through a measure honoring the flush toilet for its 150 years of service to public health, Republicans would say they’re just trying to distract Americans from the botched rollout of Obamacare. Also Benghazi," he said.

"So do I want to see where this Christie scandal goes, if anywhere?" he concluded. "Sure, I guess. But it’s really just the latest in long line of examples of scandal taking the place of business and discourse. We simply have nothing else to talk about."