In addition to Republican presidential pledges, tonight on Real Time Bill Maher re-tackled another subject he addressed last week: the woes of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. To help him grasp just what kind of power Murdoch’s built up over the years, Maher invited British writer/producer/marketing expert Martin Lewis on the program.

Bill Maher and his Real Time panel last week touched on the prominent pledges many prospective Republican presidential candidates were signing, such as Grover Norquist’s Taxpayer Protection Pledge and Bob Vander Plaats‘ marriage vow. (They weren’t fans.) This week, Maher raised the issue again, going a bit more in-depth in his rant this time…and designing a pledge of his own.

Sean Hannity is making it abundantly clear he is not covering Bill Maher‘s transgression on Real Time last weekend just to have something to talk about. Hannity dedicated a second segment on his program today to Maher’s comments about Sarah Palin and Rep. Michele Bachmann last Friday, noting that he had contacted the National Organization for Women and they were prepared to respond. But in the meantime, Hannity had a bone to pick with “angry, bitter” Bill Maher.

Bill Maher has found himself in a familiar place. Hosting a program that routinely indulges in off-color political humor and taunts the lines of decency in our public discourse, Real Time may have crossed its own lines. The highlights of the program are already well-known: calling Sarah Palin‘s family “inbred weirdos,” speculating as to what Rep. Michele Bachmann‘s sex life is like, wishing Congressional Republicans dead. Yet sad as it is, Maher can count at least one battle won in the war for vulgarity, as some on Fox News have taken to speculating about his sex life in retaliation.

Real Time host Bill Maher thought he had a good soundbite when he compared Congressional Republicans to late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, but was quickly one-upped by “It gets better” LGBT activist Dan Savage, who said “Unfortunately not exactly like him. I wish they were all f**kin’ dead.”

On Bill Maher‘s show, his near polar opposite on the political spectrum Ann Coulter stopped by for some no holds barred debate. Yet the fun between the verbal sparring partners continued on Maher’s Internet-only “Overtime” broadcast, with Coulter humorously taking exception to Maher’s lengthy condemnation of “Republican thinking.”

Last night’s incredibly zany social salad on Real Time included a number of people who would have otherwise likely never been in a room together– Bill Maher included with Ann Coulter, Chris Hayes, and Chaz Bono, which of course let Maher explore some of his curiosities. For example, he asked Bono– who completed the physical process of becoming male– if, given how advanced car parking technology is, “how are they doing with dicks?”

Earlier this week, outgoing Fox News host Glenn Beck illustrated David Carr‘s criticism of Midwesterners as “neanderthals” by doing an offensive caricature of a mentally disabled person. Mediaite’s Frances Martel wrote a relatively mild critique of Beck’s performance, given the level of offense, and for her trouble, conservative website Big Journalism has accused Martel of anti-disabled bigotry, and defended Beck’s vile minstrelsy by (I’m not kidding) asserting that those offended are mentally deficient.

Glenn Beck seemed to have reached the pinnacle of potential shock value to be had out of The New York Times‘s David Carr making a bad joke comparing Middle Americans to neanderthals on his radio show this morning, calling it the sort of comment “that leads to mass death.” He managed to top himself on his television program today, however, imitating a disabled person to give viewers a sense of what he thinks Carr believes people in the middle of the country are like.

Last week, Obama impersonator Reggie Brown stole the post-Weinergate spotlight by telling jokes so scathing to Republicans that he was yanked mid-routine from the Republican leadership conference. Never a fan of censorship, Brown caught Bill Maher‘s eye, and the comedian invited Brown onto his program last night to finish the act he started a week ago.

After examining President Barack Obama’s leadership capabilities earlier on tonight’s Real Time, Bill Maher went to some familiar territory at the end of the program: Palin-bashing. This time, though, it wasn’t Sarah: it was daughter Bristol, over her new memoir, Not Afraid of Life. And judging by just how far he went to bash the younger Palin, Maher didn’t feel like he had much to fear, either.

Holding the world’s highest-profile job guarantees a great deal of criticism at all times, but even by those standards, President Barack Obama’s getting a lot of invective thrown his way these last few days – and much of it’s from people normally on his side. Tonight, the panel on Real Time with Bill Maher gave their own thoughts on the president…and Obama probably wouldn’t like what they had to say, either.

He might have resigned, but if you’re talking about politics on television, all roads still lead back to Anthony Weiner. Bill Maher brought up the disgraced ex-politician on his show in an attempt to demonstrate this Weiner’s self-control issues, when compared with those of some other politicians, really aren’t so bad at all. Specifically, Maher had two names in mind – former Vice President Dick Cheney, and New Jersey governor Chris Christie.

Chris Matthews stopped by Real Time with Bill Maher tonight to serve on the show’s panel, and he really likes Michele Bachmann. Her name came up and Matthews immediately referred to her as “my hero,” predicted she’d beat Mitt Romney in the New Hampshire primary, and praised her for being “real.” This is probably where we make a “thrill up my leg” reference.

There are so many Republicans potentially courting the presidency in 2012, officially or unofficially so, that it’s quite easy to get mixed up as to who is a serious candidate and who isn’t. On last night’s Real Time, however, actress Janeane Garofalo stumped Bill Maher and his panel with the bizarre, unsourced news that Ohio governor (and former Fox News commentator) John Kasich was “Fox’s candidate” in 2012.

Because you haven’t been hearing enough about Rep. Anthony Weiner and the penis belonging to said congressman lately, Bill Maher closed tonight’s Real Time by offering some unsolicited (we think) advice to Weiner. Maher’s main point: for someone who’s been publicly disgraced to the point plenty of people think he should just resign, Weiner didn’t get much out of this scandal, did he? In fact, in Maher’s own opinion, “Congressman ShinyTits69″ has given us one of the least interesting sex scandals yet.

You’ve probably seen the contents of some of Rep. Anthony Weiner’s more obscene sexts, but you haven’t heard them like this. Bill Maher took advantage of his pay cable slot tonight on Real Time by dramatically reading some of Weiner’s messages verbatim…with the help of Glee star Jane Lynch. This was a can’t-miss idea – as soon as Maher announced it, the crowd applauded. Depending on your opinion of ridiculous, obscene messages, it got wither better or worse from there.

Sarah Palin took a little trip this past week, and just as it was a foregone conclusion Bill Maher would talk about Anthony Weiner’s penis, it was just as much of an ironclad guarantee that he’d address Palin’s tour of the Northeast. Especially intriguing to maher in his panel – how Palin happened to be in such close proximity to Mitt Romney when he announced his run for president, her jewelry choice, and her interpretation of Paul Revere.

You probably haven’t heard, but there’s been some talk this week about a penis that may or may not belong to a certain New York congressman. And believe it or not, the prospect of penis photos of a politician whose last name is a euphemism for a penis led to a few people telling jokes about it, and as a political comedian, Bill Maher was sure to join the fray tonight on Real Time. He did.

The last time Zach Galifianakis visited Bill Maher, the two bonded over their liberal approach to drug laws and, well, their liberal approach to drug usage. But when the last outrageous antic done on live air was to smoke “marijuana,” how do you outdo yourself this time? Luckily, Maher had a heroin kit handy, which Galifianakis was more than happy to use. He didn’t talk all that much after that.

With the 2012 Republican presidential race thinning out, Bill Maher is becoming increasingly irritated with the quirkiness factor of the field, but can’t see a way out. “The crazier the contestants, the more the voters like it,” he argued on last night’s Real Time, and the search was on to find “a candidate meaner than [Donald] Trump and dumber than [Sarah] Palin.” To that end, Maher decided to help out with a few suggestions, only half of which were fully human.

With a critical mass of GOP candidates now confirmed for 2012, Bill Maher leapt at the opportunity to judge them. After a few incorrect assessments on who is in and who isn’t confirmed (Gary Johnson isn’t confirmed, but Mike Huckabee is?), Maher specifically went after Newt Gingrich‘s record, challenging his reputation as an “ideas guy” and instead arguing that “he’s an idiot who has always been wrong about every single thing he has ever talked about.”

Real Time with Bill Maher was in many ways a dream come true for Andrew Breitbart. Not only was it a remarkably public venue for him to promote his new book Righteous Indignation, but it was also an opportunity for him to share a panel with his absurdest hero John Waters, the iconic director of numerous indie and art house movies. When the conversation turned to the Tea Party movement (and the inevitable tea bagger moniker.) A series of funny jokes followed shortly thereafter.

Last Friday, Ed Schultz took his show on the road to visit Bill Maher‘s Real Time, and the volume on set as he faced off against former RNC chairman Michael Steele got, of course, predictably loud. Today on his program, Schultz rebutted the blogosphere (including your humble Mediaite) for accurately chronicling said volume, not denying it, but asking his audience, “What do you want me to do?”

From his film work to commentary on his talk show, Bill Maher has made a career attacking religion. But he made clear last night that, to him, some religions are more equal than others, detouring from the conversation about the Florida pastor who burned a Koran to question why radical Islam, to him, seems to get a pass on violence, particularly in light of the Afghanistan killings prompted by said pastor.