Suffering from insomnia I occassionaly let the TV pause at David Letterman’s show from New York. Sometimes it is mildy amusing but has little to recommend it other than there is mostly only rubbish on the other channels.

Last night Letterman gave us all a brief glimpse into his intelligence

From Opinion Journal

Letterman to O’Reilly: ‘I’m Not Smart Enough’ to Debate War

It didn’t take long for fireworks to erupt last night when Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly guested on David Letterman’s “CBS Late Show,” with the late night host finally admitting he wasn’t “smart enough” to engage in a debate over the Iraq war.

The verbal fisticuffs began when Letterman asked if O’Reilly had a good holiday.

O’Reilly responded: “I had a nice Winter Solstice,” prompting a contentious exchange over whether Christmas traditions were indeed under attack.

But the confrontation really heated up when Letterman suggested, “Let’s talk about your friends in the Bush administration. Things seem to be darker now than they might have been heretofore.”

The comments prompted O’Reilly to launch into a point-by-point defense of the Iraq war, beginning with the argument that even if U.S. intelligence had “screwed-up” on weapons of mass destruction, “for everybody’s protection, it’s best for the world to have a democracy in that country functioning and friendly to the West.”

Letterman seemed to turn downright hostile, however, after O’Reilly defended U.S. soldiers and attacked Cindy Sheehan.

“The United States, particularly the military, is doing a noble thing – the soldiers and Marines are noble,” the Fox host insisted. “They’re not terrorists. And when people call them that, like Cindy Sheehan called the insurgents ‘freedom fighters,’ we don’t like that. It is a vitally important time in American history and we should be very careful of what we say.”

The comment prompted Letterman to admonish O’Reilly, “Then you should be very careful about what you say, also . . . I’m very concerned about people like yourself who don’t have endless sympathy for a woman like Cindy Sheehan. Honest to Christ, honest to Christ.”

The sometimes volatile Fox host let the personal attack slide and continued arguing his case.

A few moments later, Letterman threw in the towel, admitting: “I’m not smart enough to debate you point to point on this.”

The CBS star, however, couldn’t resist tempering his concession with one last insult, telling O’Reilly in the next breath: “I have the feeling that about 60 percent of what you say is crap.

It’s worth repeating.

I’m very concerned about people like yourself who don’t have endless sympathy for a woman like Cindy Sheehan. Honest to Christ, honest to Christ.

Honest to Christ, I’ll never be caught watching Letterman again.