Jon Stewart's Versus Oliver North's Expertise? (You Be the Judge)

It doesn't get much better for those end-of-your-rope times than this, does it? (Okay, they could reinstitute the progressive tax rates before Reagan (or even Clinton), but I'm not holding my breath on that one.)

Daily Show host Jon Stewart sarcastically commended Fox News on Wednesday for inviting convicted felon and former Army Lt. Col. Oliver North to comment on the U.S. deal to free POW Bowe Bergdahl — especially when North’s “commentary” included him saying President Barack Obama should have covered up the whole affair.

“Finally, some practical advice from an informed voice on the right,” Stewart said. “You can overstep your authority, just lie the sh*t out of it afterwards.”

But Stewart reminded his audience that North, a former National Security Council member, gained his “hands-on terrorist-negotiating experience” by helping sell 200 missiles to Iran — in defiance of an arms embargo — in exchange for assistance in freeing seven U.S. prisoners in Lebanon. North then used that money to fund Nicaraguan “coke-fueled jungle death squads.”

The “tragedy” of the exchange of Bergdahl for five Taliban members, North told Fox, was that the deal became public knowledge.

“The reality is, they don’t talk about it,” North said, before referring to Obama. “Ronald Reagan didn’t, and this guy shouldn’t have done it.”

North also complained that, if a “ransom” was paid to Bergdahl’s captors, that it would be used to fund “a criminal enterprise that kills Americans.”

“So you’re saying it now like it’s a bad thing. Does this make you mad ’cause it’s gone mainstream?” Stewart responded. “‘I was into using American taxpayer money to arm terrorist groups way before it was cool.’”

Watch Jon Stewart here, friends.