Jack Kingston

As you know, Congressman Kingston was on HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher last night. After the show he jumped on the red-eye back to Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield located in Georgia’s First Congressional District for a Welcome Home Celebration for about 14,000 expected soldiers and families.

At the celebration, Maj. Gen. William Webster told his soldiers and their families:

“You were always with us in spirit and prayer and we appreciate you coming together today for the official Welcome Home Ceremony for the 3rd Infantry Division,” he said. “My special thanks to the awesome families of the 3rd Infantry Division and the retirees and civilians who work on post and those who support us downtown for being here today and their continued support to allow us to honor these Soldiers on the field and the rest of the Soldiers who could not be here today.”

Regarding his appearance on Real Time Congressman Kingston told Savannah’s own WTOC:

“You know from the beginning, [Real Time is] not a bastion of Republican friendliness. Conservatives have to get the message out, and sometimes, we yield the field to people like Bill Maher and some of his guests they have,” the congressman said.

Guests like comedian Richard Belzer. His comments on last week’s show about asking soldiers their opinions on the war in Iraq fired Kingston up. “They don’t read 20 newspapers a day,” Belzer said on the show. “They are on the foot of deaths’ door stop. They are not the best people to ask about the war.”

“He lives in an ivory tower surrounded by all his Hollywood actor friends who agree with him,” said Kingston. “He’s never been to Benning or Stewart or sat in a class with these soldiers.”

Kingston knows he’ll have to fight to get a word in. “It’s hard, cause these shows, 3/4 of them are are diehard anti-conservative liberals. They yell and scream and so forth.

“If I can defend a few points on the war, I’ll say mission accomplished,” Kingston added.

We checked out Real Time’s online billboard to see some of the comments on the show. Here is one comment that we found particularly interesting which shows how Republicans can help speak to a larger audience:

Shortcakemel:
I TiVo Real Time every week, and although I consider myself a progressive, it is often difficult to watch the show when the guests totally go after each other, especially when they don’t let anyone finish a sentence. I just wanted to add that I thought that tonight’s episode with Jason Alexander, Jack Kingston, and Reza Aslan was the best I’ve seen. Although they did not completely agree, they spoke to each other with respect, and it was a very enjoyable show. I was amazed at how much I agreed with most of what Alexander said, and I found Aslan very interesting. Kingston was kind of a Republican dork, but you can’t have it all. He was actually on point, and seemed to care about what he was speaking about. The whole thing was very entertaining. Thanks!

Well, we may not agree with EVERYTHING in your comment Shortcakemel, but all around a positive response. Thanks for weighing in.

So what did you think of the Congressman’s appearance. Now’s your chance to weigh in with a comment.