To the surprise of no thinking person, the honorees at this year’s Emmy Awards ceremony, broadcast nationally Sunday night, used the occasion as an opportunity to foist their elitist, collectivist, coercive political opinions on a nationwide audience interested in looking at celebrities’ clothes, not in hearing lectures.

The current Bush administration and the Republican candidates for president and vice president were the main targets, predictably. The Chicago Sun-Times report provides an informative post-mortem:

The political shots began during the show’s opening [gee—it took them that long?—Ed.] when Emmy co-host Howie Mandel noted he and his co-hosts Ryan Seacrest, Tom Bergeron, Heidi Klum and Jeff Probst didn’t have a prepared opening monologue.

"We are, like, on Sarah Palin’s bridge to nowhere—that’s where we are right now," the comic said. "The government can’t even bail us out of this. We have nothing."

HBO’s "Recount," about the disputed presidential balloting of 2000, was named best movie, prompting producer Paula Weinstein to promise, "They will be there on Nov. 4, fighting again. Vote!"

Not to be outdone, "John Adams" producer Tom Hanks politicized when picking up the Emmy for outstanding miniseries.

"The election between Jefferson and Adams was filled with innuendo; lies; a bitter, partisan press, and disinformation," Hanks said without a hint of irony. "How great we’ve come so far since then."

Clearly referring to President Bush, the writer of the John Adams series said that the early years of the nation were "a period of our history when articulate men articulated complex thoughts in complete sentences"—thereby contradicting Hanks and revealing a stunning ignorance of history. Vulgarians, scam artists, and nitwits have always been drawn to politics and always will be.

Another participant in the John Adams series, the actress Laura Linney, indulged in what the Sun-Times referred to as a "sly dig at Palin’s comments at the Republican National Convention. The Emmy, she said, ‘will give me a great reason to stop and pause and be so grateful and thankful for the community organizers that helped form our country.’ "

The men also wore white wigs and used tobacco, we might note.

Reuters provided a useful summary of the main award winners, for those wise enough to refrain from watching the show. Of particular note was that the John Adams miniseries was the biggest winner overall with 13 awards, including best miniseries, and the AMC series Mad Men was the first show from a cable network other than HBO to win the Emmy for best drama.