Fox News: Please Find Better Conservative Actors

Let's stipulate that cable news chews through a huge number of guests on a daily basis. Even so, Fox News Channel and the bookers of Sean Hannity's program really aren't trying hard enough if the best conservative actor they can find is former "Saturday Night Live" member Victoria Jackson.

Jackson appeared on "Hannity" earlier this week (Crooks and Liars has the video), and wherever one falls on the ideological spectrum, it was flat-out embarrassing. Jackson brandished a bible, ranted about Barack Obama being a Communist and suggested that Hannity or Rush Limbaugh should run for president.

Frankly, I'm not a huge fan of enlisting actors -- whatever their political views -- as guests in such venues, mostly because it's such a transparent ploy to try broadening the cable-news audience. Besides, Bill Maher has that "Odd dinner party chat" niche scoped out on HBO.

Assuming you're determined to do so, though, there are helpful guides to conservative/pro-GOP performers out there despite the entertainment industry's liberal bent (Newsmax.com has even published a list, labeling them "Hollywood Heroes"), and some aren't still dining out on credits like "Larry the Cable Guy's Star-Studded Christmas Extravaganza" and an "SNL" stint that ended in 1992. Either that, or the recession has really hit in an unexpected way and we're finally running out of famous people.

While I recognize the value in a little comic relief now and then, Hannity isn't doing Jackson -- or for that matter his own cause -- a service by acting like she belongs in their arsenal of advocates. Then again, even Hannity appeared slightly shellshocked as Jackson prattled on for several uncomfortable minutes. "I'm speechless," Fox News contributor Bob Beckel said after some give-and-take with her.

He shouldn't have been the only one.